Nested Monte Carlo study of random packing on the sphere

Abstract

We consider two random sequential packing processes in which spheres of unit radius are randomly attached to the surface of a fixed unit sphere. Independent random spheres are generated and added successively, provided there is no overlap with previous spheres. In model 1, the process stops when a trial sphere intersects one of the previously-accepted spheres. In model 2, random sequential packing, any such overlapping trial sphere is discarded and the next random sphere is tried, until it is impossible to add any further spheres.Previous workers have conjectured convincingly that no exact analytical solution is possible for this type of problem. We use Monte Carlo simulation methods to estimate transition probabilities for the two models. Because some probabilities are extremely small, a simulation using independent repetitions of the model would be inefficient. We designed a branching process of conditionally binomial trials, and performed over 108 trials on a supercomputer.