Columnar Structures of Spheres - Fundamentals and Applications

Columnar structures, many of which are helical, refer to dense cylindrical packings of particles. They are ubiquitous, for example, they exist in the contexts of botany, foams, and nanoscience. There have been in-depth investigations of columnar structures of both hard spheres (e.g., ball bearings) and soft spheres (e.g., wet foams), through computer simulations, analytic derivations, or simple experiments. This monograph serves as a comprehensive guide for scientists, engineers, or artists who would like to have a good grasp of the fundamentals and applications of such aesthetically appealing structures for their own professional interests.

The book begins with an introduction to the field of packing problems, where such problems are closely related not only to the columnar structures presented in the book but also to the structures of condensed matter systems in general. It then discusses about columnar structures of spheres and overviews their classifications and applicatio