DENSE PERIODIC PACKINGS OF REGULAR POLYGONS

We show theoretically that it is possible to build dense periodic pack ings, with quasi 6- fold symmetry, from any kind of identical regular convex polygons. In all cases, each polygon is in contact with z = 6 o ther ones. For an odd number of sides of the polygons, 4 contacts are side to side contacts and the 2 others are side to vertex contacts. Fo r an even number of sides, the 6 contacts are side to side contacts. T he packing fraction of the assemblies is of the order of 90%. The pred icted patterns have also been obtained by numerical simulations of ann ealing of packings of convex polygons.