Improved lower bound for the 11-dimensional kissing number
Improved lower bound for the 11-dimensional kissing number is graded independently checked on whataifound.org, with the AI's role graded search scaffold.
AlphaEvolve improved the best known configuration for the kissing number problem in 11 dimensions.
- Verification
- Independently checked
- Autonomy
- Search scaffold
- Lab
- Google DeepMind
- Model
- AlphaEvolve (Gemini-based)
- Field
- Mathematics
- Date
- 2025-05-14
- Problem posed
- 1694 · open 331 yrs
- Notability
- 12 Wikipedia language editions
What was found
Part of a sweep across 50+ open problems in analysis, geometry, combinatorics and number theory. AlphaEvolve rediscovered state-of-the-art solutions in roughly 75% of cases and improved on the best known in about 20%. The kissing number problem asks how many non-overlapping unit spheres can touch a central one.
Novelty check
Kissing number bounds are well catalogued per dimension; the 11D improvement was checked against the standing record.
Caveats
A lower-bound improvement via explicit construction, not a resolution of the problem. The 20% improvement rate means most of the 50+ problems saw no advance.
Sources
Community discussion
How this is graded
whataifound.org grades every entry on two axes: verification (how solid the result is, from a machine-checked proof down to refuted) and autonomy (how much the AI did versus its human collaborators). This finding is independently checked and search scaffold. Full definitions are in the methodology.
Cite this entry
whataifound.org (2025). Improved lower bound for the 11-dimensional kissing number. whataifound.org: A Registry of AI Scientific and Mathematical Discoveries. https://whataifound.org/finding/2025-05-alphaevolve-kissing