Dual Linear Programming Bounds for Sphere Packing via Discrete Reductions

Abstract: The Cohn-Elkies linear program for sphere packing, which was used to solve the 8 and 24 dimensional cases, is conjectured to not be sharp in any other dimension $d>2$. By mapping feasible points of this infinite-dimensional linear program into a finite-dimensional problem via discrete reduction, we provide a general method to obtain dual bounds on the Cohn-Elkies linear program. This reduces the number of variables to be finite, enabling computer optimization techniques to be applied. Using this method, we prove that the Cohn-Elkies bound cannot come close to the best packing densities known in dimensions $3 \leq d \leq 13$ except for the solved case $d=8$. In particular, our dual bounds show the Cohn-Elkies bound is unable to solve the 3, 4, and 5 dimensional sphere packing problems.