The third edition of this timely, definitive, and popular book continues to pursue the question: what is the most efficient way to pack a large number of equal spheres in n-dimensional Euclidean space? The authors also continue to examine related problems such as the kissing number problem, the covering problem, the quantizing problem, and the classification of lattices and quadratic forms.

A timely and definitive book on this widely applicable subject New edition has been long awaitedsecond edition had been out of stock for some time Describes modern applications to areas such as number theory, coding theory, analog-to-digital conversion and data compression, n-dimensional crystallography, and superstring theory in physics New edition includes a report on recent developments in the field and an updated and enlarged supplementary bibliography with over 800 items Written by two very well known researchers

Inhalt
1 Sphere Packings and Kissing Numbers.- 2 Coverings, Lattices and Quantizers.- 3 Codes, Designs and Groups.- 4 Certain Important Lattices and Their Properties.- 5 Sphere Packing and Error-Correcting Codes.- 6 Laminated Lattices.- 7 Further Connections Between Codes and Lattices.- 8 Algebraic Constructions for Lattices.- 9 Bounds for Codes and Sphere Packings.- 10 Three Lectures on Exceptional Groups.- 11 The Golay Codes and the Mathieu Groups.- 12 A Characterization of the Leech Lattice.- 13 Bounds on Kissing Numbers.- 14 Uniqueness of Certain Spherical Codes.- 15 On the Classification of Integral Quadratic Forms.- 16 Enumeration of Unimodular Lattices.- 17 The 24-Dimensional Odd Unimodular Lattices.- 18 Even Unimodular 24-Dimensional Lattices.- 19 Enumeration of Extremal Self-Dual Lattices.- 20 Finding the Closest Lattice Point.- 21 Voronoi Cells of Lattices and Quantization Errors.- 22 A Bound for the Covering Radius of the Leech Lattice.- 23 The Covering Radius of the Leech Lattice.- 24 Twenty-Three Constructions for the Leech Lattice.- 25 The Cellular Structure of the Leech Lattice.- 26 Lorentzian Forms for the Leech Lattice.- 27 The Automorphism Group of the 26-Dimensional Even Unimodular Lorentzian Lattice.- 28 Leech Roots and Vinberg Groups.- 29 The Monster Group and its 196884-Dimensional Space.- 30 A Monster Lie Algebra?.- Supplementary Bibliography.