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# First-principles study of lattice instabilities in the ferromagnetic martensite Ni2MnGa

## I INTRODUCTION

Ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys displaying large magnetic-field-induced strain have recently emerged as a new class of active materials, very promising for actuator and sensor applications. The largest known magnetostrain effects have been observed in Ni2MnGa-based Heusler alloys, where up to 6% and 9.5% strains have been induced by a magnetic field less than 1 Tesla.

The magnetic shape-memory behavior is closely linked to the occurrence of a martensitic transformation in conjuction with a strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy of the low-temperature martensitic phase. For a deeper understanding of the magnetic shape-memory mechanism, a microscopic explanation for the origin of the martensitic transformation and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy is clearly needed. Towards this goal, we have used ab initio techniques to investigate the origin of the martensitic transformation.

Ni2MnGa is the most intensively studied of the relatively few known ferromagnetic shape-memory materials. A number of thermal and stress-induced martensitic transformations have been observed in Ni2MnGa-based alloys, and both transition temperatures and crystallographic structures are quite sensitive to alloy composition.

In the stoichiometric alloy, Ni2MnGa, which is ferromagnetic below T$`{}_{\mathrm{C}}{}^{}`$ 380 K, two thermally-induced phase transitions have been observed. From the high-temperature cubic Heusler structure, a premartensitic phase transformation to a modulated cubic structure occurs below T$`{}_{\mathrm{PM}}{}^{}`$ 260 K,  followed by a martensitic transformation to a modulated tetragonal structure below T$`{}_{\mathrm{M}}{}^{}`$ 220 K.  The low temperature martensitic phase has a tetragonal structure ($`c/a`$=0.94, $`a`$=5.90$`\AA `$) with a superimposed incommensurate modulation along the  direction, consisting of a shuffling of (110) planes in the \[$`\overline{1}`$10\] direction with a periodicity of almost 5 interplanar distances, which corresponds to a wave vector q$`{}_{\mathrm{M}}{}^{}\frac{2\pi }{a}`$(0.43, 0.43, 0) (Refs. ). The low-temperature martensitic phase has a high magnetocrystalline anisotropy,  making it useful for applications. At a phenomenological level, the coupling between strain, modulation, and magnetization has recently been described in a Landau-theory framework.

Some clues to the microscopic origin of the martensitic transitions are provided by the softening of particular phonons and elastic constants. Inelastic neutron scattering experiments on the high-temperature phase found a significant, though incomplete, softening in the TA2 phonon branch along the  direction, at a wave vector q$`{}_{\mathrm{PM}}{}^{}\frac{2\pi }{a}`$(0.33, 0.33, 0) (Ref. ). The phonon softening has been found to correspond to a premartensitic phase occurring between the high-temperature cubic and low-temperature martensitic structures. The premartensitic phase has a cubic structure with a superimposed -transverse shuffling modulation, analogous to the modulation of the martensitic phase but with a different periodicity of almost 6 interplanar distances.  While the PM phase is anticipated by a precursor phonon softening at qPM, no phonon softening at qM has been observed above TM.

The aim of this study is to provide a unified explanation for the microscopic origin of the rich variety of phase transitions and modulated structures occurring in this ferromagnetic shape-memory alloy. To this end we have performed a first-principles study of the phonon dispersions and lattice instabilities of ferromagnetic Ni2MnGa and of their dependence upon uniform tetragonal strain. In our calculations we use the spin-polarized generalized-gradient approximation ($`\sigma `$-GGA) recently developed within the density-functional perturbation theory (DFPT) formalism.  This approach allows us to obtain an accurate description of the structural, magnetic, and vibrational properties of Ni2MnGa.

The paper is organized as follows. The details of the computational method are given in section II. In section III we present the results for the cubic Heusler structure. The crystal structure and magnetization are discussed in Section III.A. Section III.B is devoted to the phonon dispersion, with particular attention to the phonon anomaly and related dynamical instability. The origin of the phonon anomaly is discussed in Section III.C. The computed elastic constants are presented and discussed in Section III.D. In Section IV we investigate the dependence of the phonon dispersions and lattice instabilities on uniform tetragonal strain. In Section V the main results are summarized and the microscopic origin of the observed phase transitions explained.

## II COMPUTATIONAL METHOD

Our calculations have been performed within the framework of density-functional and density-functional-perturbation theory (DFT and DFPT). In particular, the vibrational properties have been computed using a recent implementation of ultrasoft pseudopotentials into DFPT.  We used ultrasoft pseudopotentials  for Ni and Mn, freezing the 3$`s`$ and 3$`p`$ core electrons and treating the 3$`d`$ and 4$`s`$ states as valence levels.  The nonlinear core correction is used to account for the overlap between the core and the valence charges.  For the Ga atom we used a norm-conserving pseudopotential, which also includes a nonlinear core correction, treating the 4$`s`$ and 4$`p`$ states as valence levels. To describe the effects of exchange and correlation, we used the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functional with the spin-polarized generalized gradient correction ($`\sigma `$-GGA), recently implemented within the DFPT formalism in the PWscf code.  For comparison, we have performed calculations within the local spin density approximation (LSDA) using the Perdew-Zunger parameterization of the exchange and correlation energy. The plane-wave basis set had a kinetic-energy cutoff of 25 Ry. The augmentation charges, required by the use of ultrasoft pseudopotentials, were expanded with an energy cutoff of 450 Ry. The Brillouin zone integration was performed using the smearing technique,  suitable for metallic systems. The structural properties and most of the phonon frequencies are well converged using a first-order smearing function with a smearing parameter $`\sigma `$=0.03 Ry and an fcc (6, 6, 6) Monkhorst-Pack grid,  yielding 28 k-points in the irreducible wedge of the Brillouin zone (IBZ) for the cubic structure. To obtain an accurate description of the anomalous TA2 phonon branch, a smaller smearing parameter is necessary and, consequently, a finer k-point sampling. An accuracy to within a few cm-1 has been obtained using $`\sigma `$=0.01 Ry and an fcc (10, 10, 10) k-point grid, yielding 110 k-points in the IBZ, for the cubic structure. For the tetragonal structure, an (8, 8, 8) k-point grid yielding 144 k-points in the IBZ of the face-centered orthorhombic unit cell was used.

To compute the full phonon dispersions of the cubic structure, we computed the interatomic force constants by Fourier transformation of the dynamical matrices computed on a (6, 6, 6) q-point grid in the fcc BZ. The phonon dispersions along the  () direction were obtained by interpolating the dynamical matrices computed on a finer mesh of 24 q-points between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and the shortest reciprocal-space vector parallel to the  () direction. An even denser mesh of q-points has been used in the proximity of the anomaly for a more accurate interpolation of the TA2 branch.

## III Cubic Ni2MnGa

In this section, we report the results of calculations for Ni2MnGa in the fcc L21 Heusler structure (see figure 1).

### A Crystal structure and magnetization

In table I are given the minimum-energy lattice parameter, $`a_0`$, the bulk modulus, B0, and the magnetic moment per unit cell, $`\mu _0`$, computed within the spin-polarized $`\sigma `$-GGA. Note that to obtain convergence to within 0.01$`\mu _B`$, $`\mu _0`$ has been computed on a (10, 10, 10) k-point grid with $`\sigma `$=0.01 Ry. These results agree well with those of all-electron calculations (FLAPW) performed using the $`\sigma `$-GGA.  The theoretical results are also in very good agreement with the experimental data; the theoretical lattice parameter obtained with $`\sigma `$-GGA is equal, to within theoretical precision, to the experimental value. For comparison, the LSDA results are included in table I. The LSDA lattice parameter is 2.5% smaller than the experimental value. This underestimate of the lattice parameter is correlated with an increase in the bulk modulus to 38% higher than the experimental value.

### B Phonon dispersion relation

The phonon dispersions of the ferromagnetic cubic structure ($`a_0`$ = 11.03 a.u.) have been computed, using $`\sigma `$-GGA, for $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ along high-symmetry lines in the first Brillouin zone, as shown in figure 2. The solid lines indicate the computed phonon dispersion converged to within a few wave numbers. The theoretical phonon dispersion curves are in excellent agreement with the available inelastic neutron scattering data.

To evaluate the accuracy of the theoretical method, the phonon frequencies computed using different approximations for the exchange and correlation energy, at the zone boundary X point, are given in table II. Since the experimental frequency of the anomalous ($`\zeta \zeta 0`$)-acoustic branch is not strongly temperature dependent at this q-point, it is a good reference for evaluating the accuracy of the theoretical method. The experimental frequency for the transverse acoustic mode X$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{5}{}^{}`$ is in very good agreement with the phonon frequency computed using the $`\sigma `$-GGA, with the computed value being about 6% softer. For comparison, we have also done the computation with LSDA. Calculations for the cubic structure with the LSDA lattice constant yield frequencies about 10% harder than those computed using the $`\sigma `$-GGA, except for the lowest X$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{5}{}^{}`$ mode which is 7% softer, increasing the discrepancy with experiment. In addition, the ordering of the modes in LSDA is different. Specifically, the X$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{4}{}^{}`$ mode is softer than the nearby X$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{5}{}^{}`$ and X5 modes. We have also computed the phonon frequencies within the LSDA but fixing the lattice parameter to the equilibrium value computed in the $`\sigma `$-GGA. The result is that all the modes soften, so that the frequencies are about 10% smaller than with $`\sigma `$-GGA. This softening results in an even greater discrepancy with the experimental X$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{5}{}^{}`$ mode (20%). We conclude that the better accuracy of $`\sigma `$-GGA is not merely an effect of the more accurate value of the equilibrium lattice parameter. All calculations reported below were performed with $`\sigma `$-GGA.

The most striking feature of the phonon dispersion relation in figure 2 is the anomalous dip in the lowest branch of the transverse acoustic modes (TA2) along $`[`$110$`]`$. The minimum at the incommensurate wave vector q0=$`\frac{2\pi }{a}`$($`\zeta _0`$, $`\zeta _0`$, 0), with $`\zeta _0=0.34`$, is at imaginary frequency. Thus, the crystal is dynamically unstable to the lattice distortion corresponding to the eigenvector of this mode, which consists of a nearly rigid displacement of the (110) atomic planes along the \[1$`\overline{1}`$0\] direction with a modulation period of slightly less than 6 interplanar distances along the  direction. This energy-lowering distortion can be specified by an amplitude, u, and a phase, $`\varphi `$,

$$𝐮_m=𝐮cos(m\zeta _0\pi +\varphi ),$$
(1)
where um is the displacement of the $`m^{th}`$ (110) atomic plane along the \[1$`\overline{1}`$0\] direction. Due to the cubic symmetry, there are 12 equivalent anomalies along the $`<`$110$`>`$ directions which give rise to six different but crystallografically equivalent lattice modulations $`𝐮_m`$.

The phonon anomaly is shown in more detail in figure 3, where the theoretical dispersion is compared with inelastic neutron scattering data taken at two different temperatures: T=370 K (squares) and T=250 K (triangles).  The experimental data display an anomaly in the TA2 branch that corresponds to the anomaly predicted by our theoretical dispersion. The wave vector of the experimentally-observed anomaly is $`\zeta _{\mathrm{PM}}0.33`$ in excellent agreement with the theoretical value. For those modes that do not have a strong dependence upon temperature, such as the LA branch and the TA2 modes away from the anomaly ($`\zeta `$ 0.45), the agreement between theory and experiment is very good. To compare theory and experiment for modes that are strongly temperature dependent, we need to extrapolate the experimental values to T = 0 K. In accordance with the soft mode theory, $`(\mathrm{}\omega )^2`$ is experimentally observed to decrease linearly with temperature above TPM=260 K. Extrapolation to T = 0 K gives an imaginary frequency of $`30i`$ cm-1, which is in reasonable agreement with the computed value.

Examination of the phonon dispersion throughout the entire BZ shows that imaginary frequencies leading to dynamical instabilities occur only in a very localized region in q-space. This is in agreement with the experimental dispersion measured in the direction perpendicular to q0, q=q0+($`\zeta ,\zeta ,0`$).  The contour plot in figure 4 shows that the lattice instability is confined to a “drop-shaped” small region in reciprocal space, located along the  direction and centered at the critical wave vector q0, where the dominant instability occurs. The localized nature of the anomaly in q-space is a signature of its electronic origin, as will be discussed in detail in the next section.

### C Origin of the anomaly

Screening due to electron-phonon coupling involving electronic states near the Fermi level in metals can give rise to anomalous dips in the phonon dispersion, called Kohn anomalies. The occurrence of these anomalies depends mainly on the geometry of the Fermi surface, as well as on the q-dependence of electron-phonon matrix elements. If the Fermi surface has flat portions with nesting vector q0, there generally will be very strong screening of the potential perturbation due to atomic displacements at that wavevector, leading to a pronounced softening highly localized in q-space. The effect of Fermi surface geometry can be quantified by calculation of the generalized susceptibility, as in Ref. .

In cubic Ni2MnGa, the Fermi level crosses both minority and majority spin bands. Of the two Fermi surfaces, only the one for the minority spin bands, plotted in figure 5, shows obvious nesting features. In particular, a large fraction of the opposite sides of the “pipes,” running along the faces of the cube and crossing at their center, are nested by wavevectors of the form ($`\zeta _0,k,0`$)$`\frac{2\pi }{a}`$ with $`\zeta _0`$ = 0.34 and $`0k0.34`$ and the cubic-symmetry-related equivalent wavectors. Along , this corresponds to the critical wave vector of the anomaly. It should be noted that this differs from the position of the nesting wavevector and peak in generalized susceptibility along  found in Refs.  and . This difference might be attributable to the differences in method, in particular, the difference in choice of density functional.  appears to be a direction for which the anomaly is strongest. For example, although there is nesting along $`[`$100$`]`$ as well, there is no sign of an anomaly in the phonon dispersion. This can be attributed to the vanishing of the relevant electron-phonon matrix elements.

The strength of a Kohn anomaly is expected to be very sensitive to electronic temperature, with an increasing temperature reducing the sharpness of the Fermi surface and thus weakening the anomaly. In our calculations, the sensitivity to electronic temperature can be directly investigated, as the smearing parameter $`\sigma `$ plays the role of a fictitious electronic temperature. In table III we show the dependence on $`\sigma `$ of those modes at the critical wave vector, q0, that have the same symmetry as the soft TA2 branch (i.e. the three modes of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_3`$ symmetry). The anomalous TA2 mode, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_3(1)`$, is much more sensitive to the fictitious electronic temperature than the other two modes. All the frequencies are well converged for $`\sigma `$=0.01 Ry. The dependence of the phonon anomaly upon the electronic temperature is also shown in figure 2, where the dispersion of the anomalous TA2 branch computed with $`\sigma `$=0.03 Ry (dashed line) is compared with the fully converged calculation for $`\sigma `$=0.01 Ry (solid line). Only the modes with wavevectors close to the anomaly, ($`\zeta _00.16)<\zeta <(\zeta _0+0.16`$), are affected by the change in the electronic temperature. The anomaly is smoothed out as the fictitious electronic temperature is increased. Thus, we conclude that the computed dip is indeed a Kohn anomaly.

### D Elastic constants

The computed elastic constants for the ferromagnetic cubic structure are reported in table IV. In a first-principles framework, the standard approach for obtaining elastic constants is to compute the stress tensor for a selected set of small strains. To obtain convergence at the level of a few GPa, we have used very dense k-point meshes (up to (14 14 14), corresponding to 10976 points in the BZ). To compute C11 and C12 the cubic crystal is distorted by the tetragonal deformation: $`ϵ_{zz}`$=$`ϵ`$, $`ϵ_{xx}`$=$`ϵ_{yy}`$=0. For small deformations the stress, $`\sigma _{ij}`$, is linear with $`ϵ`$: $`\sigma _{xx}`$=$`\sigma _{yy}`$=C$`{}_{12}{}^{}ϵ`$, and $`\sigma _{zz}`$=C$`{}_{11}{}^{}ϵ`$. The values so obtained for the elastic constants C11, C12, and the shear modulus C=(C$`{}_{11}{}^{}`$C12)/2 are indicated as “theory 1” in table IV.

The small magnitude of $`C^{}`$ requires additional attention. We performed an independent computation by considering the tetragonal deformation $`ϵ_{xx}`$=$`ϵ_{yy}`$=$`ϵ`$, $`ϵ_{zz}`$=$``$2$`ϵ`$. For small $`ϵ`$ we have that $`\sigma _{xx}`$=$`\sigma _{yy}`$=2$`C^{}ϵ`$ and $`\sigma _{zz}`$=$`4`$C$`{}_{}{}^{}ϵ`$. This direct calculation gives C=(2$`\pm `$2) GPa, in good agreement with the value obtained as a difference of C11 and C12 in theory 1. The near-zero value of $`C^{}`$ implies that there is almost no energy cost for a small tetragonal shear distortion of the type $`2ϵ_{xx}`$=2$`ϵ_{yy}`$=$`ϵ_{zz}`$. Evidence of this marginal elastic instability towards small volume-preserving tetragonal distortions was also found in Ref., where it was shown that the energy surface as a function of $`c/a`$ is remarkably flat; specifically, the change in energy associated with varying the $`c/a`$ ratio in the range of values between 0.97 and 1.01 is almost zero to within numerical accuracy.

In table IV (theory 2) we also show the values of the elastic constants estimated from the slope of the long wavelength acoustic modes along the  direction. The elastic constants C44, C, and CL=(C11+C12+2C44)/2 correspond to the TA1, TA2, and LA modes, respectively. These determine the values of $`C_{11}`$ and $`C_{12}`$ given in the table. The evaluation of the elastic constants from the phonon dispersion is less accurate, especially for C where the corresponding TA2 branch deviates from a linear behavior already at very small q.

The elastic constants in the high-temperature cubic phase have been experimentally determined between room temperature and the pre-martensitic structural phase transition at T = 260 K by measuring the velocity of ultrasonic waves.  These experiments show that the elastic constants $`C_L`$ and $`C_{11}`$ are almost temperature independent. In contrast, the transverse elastic constants $`C_{44}`$ and $`C^{}`$ exhibit an anomalous behavior with cooling, softening as the pre-martensitic phase transition temperature is approached. While the softening is small for $`C_{44}`$, it is more dramatic for $`C^{}`$, which decreases by 60% from room temperature to the transition. We find good agreement between theory and room temperature measurements for $`C_L`$ and $`C_{11}`$, which are not strongly modified by finite temperature. The pronounced softening of $`C^{}`$ is also consistent with the very small zero-temperature theoretical value, $`C^{}0`$.

## IV Tetragonal Ni2MnGa

The identification of unstable phonons at q0=$`\frac{2\pi }{a}`$($`\zeta _0`$, $`\zeta _0`$, 0), with $`\zeta _0=0.34`$, in the cubic Heusler structure leads naturally to an understanding of the transition to the premartensitic cubic-modulated phase with decreasing temperature. To explore the subsequent transition to the low-temperature martensitic phase with $`c/a`$ = 0.94 and modulation wavevector $`\zeta _0=0.43`$, we extended the calculations of phonon dispersion to Heusler structures with uniform volume-preserving tetragonal strains ranging from $`c/a`$ = 0.88 to $`c/a`$ = 1.06, with particular attention to the TA modes along the $`<`$110$`>`$ directions.

### A Tetragonal structure with $`c/a`$=0.94

We first consider in detail the volume-preserving tetragonal distortion with $`c/a`$=0.94, corresponding to the low temperature martensitic phase. The phonon dispersions computed along the inequivalent  and  directions of the tetragonal BZ are shown in figure 6. The only mode substantially affected by the tetragonal distortion is the anomalous TA2 mode. We find an overall softening (hardening) of the TA2 branch in the  () direction. The anomaly is particularly affected by the tetragonal distortion. Along the $`<`$110$`>`$ directions, which are perpendicular to the $`c`$ axis, the phonon anomaly is more pronounced and is shifted to a larger q-vector ($`\zeta =0.43`$) than in the cubic structure. This wavevector is in excellent agreement with the long period modulation observed experimentally in the tetragonal martensitic phase. In contrast, along the $`<`$011$`>`$ directions, the anomaly has almost completely disappeared; the entire branch is stable and there is only a very small wiggle in the TA2 branch. Thus, the entropy from low-frequency phonons should be roughly a factor of three less than in the premartensitic phase, which may explain why the premartensitic phase is more favorable at higher temperatures.

As in the cubic phase, the anomaly can be associated with features of the Fermi surface. In figure 7 we show the minority-spin Fermi surface computed for Ni2MnGa in the tetragonal structure. It is related to the Fermi surface of the cubic structure with two major differences: (i) there are no flat surfaces perpendicular to the (001) direction, and (ii) the “pipes” running along the faces of the tetragonal BZ are wider than the corresponding features in the cubic Fermi surface. As a consequence of these changes, induced by the tetragonal distortion, there is significant nesting only in the $`<`$110$`>`$ directions perpendicular to the $`c`$ axis and the edges of the “pipes” are nested by the larger ($`\zeta `$ $`\zeta `$ 0) critical wave-vector, $`\zeta =0.43`$. This explains why in the tetragonal structure there are pronounced Kohn anomalies only in the $`<`$110$`>`$ directions, at a larger wave vector than in the cubic structure.

### B Evolution of phonon anomaly with tetragonal deformation

To understand better the lattice instabilities and related structural energetics of Ni2MnGa, we studied the evolution of the TA2 phonon anomaly with uniform volume-preserving tetragonal strain.

Studying the phonon dispersions of the cubic Heusler structure ($`c/a=1`$) and its tetragonal distortion with $`c/a=0.94`$, we have identified the existence of the unstable mode at $`\zeta =0.34`$ and $`\zeta =0.43`$, respectively, that explain the transitions to the premartensitic and martensitic phases with decreasing temperature. The fact that for the two tetragonal strains the soft mode is always the TA2 mode but with a different wave vector suggests that the wavevector of the soft mode and the tetragonal strain are coupled. We therefore studied in more detail the dependence of $`\zeta `$ upon tetragonal strain.

The dispersion of the TA2 branch along the  direction is shown in figure 8 for several values of the $`c/a`$ ratio. An overall softening of the TA2 branch is observed with decreasing $`c/a`$ ratio. With compressive strain ($`c/a<1`$) the anomaly occurs at a larger $`\zeta _0`$ than in the cubic structure, and becomes broader and more pronounced. For $`c/a0.91`$ the entire branch is unstable. With tensile strain ($`c/a>1`$) the anomaly shifts to a smaller $`\zeta _0`$ and becomes less pronounced. The lattice instability is completely eliminated for $`c/a1.06`$. This is in agreement with the experimental observation of no superimposed modulations in a stress induced tetragonal phase with $`c/a`$ = 1.18.

In figure 8, we have shown the TA2 branch for several different values of $`c/a`$. For each of these values of $`c/a`$, we can find the value of the wavevector $`\zeta _0`$ for which the imaginary frequency of the TA2 branch has its minimum. This gives us the dependence of the modulation wavevector upon strain and is shown in figure 8. Three regimes can be identified: (i) $`c/a0.91`$, where the entire TA2 branch is unstable and there is no unique minimum; (ii) $`0.9<c/a<1.06`$, where the TA2 branch displays a well-defined dynamical instability localized at the wavevector $`\zeta _0`$ that depends on $`c/a`$; and (iii) $`c/a1.06`$, where the lattice instability is completely eliminated and the TA2 branch is stable over the whole BZ, so that no minimum is defined. Only in regime (ii) can a modulated structure be expected to occur.

In order to quantify these trends, in figure 10 we decompose the phonon frequency $`\omega ^2`$ into a short-range “normal” part $`\omega _n^2`$ and a long-range “anomalous” part $`\omega _a^2`$: $`\omega ^2(\zeta )`$=$`\omega _n^2(\zeta )+\omega _a^2(\zeta )`$. The “normal” contribution, defined as $`\omega _n^2(\zeta )`$=$`A[1cos(\zeta \pi )]`$, depends only upon short-range interatomic force constants and is connected to the local chemistry of the crystal. It corresponds to the simple model for the transverse \[1$`\overline{1}`$0\] vibrations of the  planes when they interact only with a first-neighbor interplanar force constant: K=-A$`m`$/2, where $`m`$ is the mass associated with each plane. The long-range “anomalous” contribution $`\omega _a^2`$ depends on electronic screening effects that can be strongly q dependent. To fit the constant A in the definition of $`\omega _n^2(\zeta )`$, we assume that for $`\zeta `$=1 the anomalous contribution is zero.

The short-range contribution softens with decreasing $`c/a`$ ratio, causing the overall softening observed for the TA2 branch. Decreasing $`c/a`$ corresponds to a volume-preserving tetragonal distortion with a shorter $`c`$ and larger $`a`$. Therefore smaller $`c/a`$ values correspond to a larger  interplanar distance which leads to a weaker interplanar force constant and therefore a softer $`\omega _n^2`$.

The anomalous contribution $`\omega _a^2`$ is negative, large, and peaked at a critical wave vector $`\zeta _0`$, indicating a strong screening due to the electon-phonon coupling and Fermi surface nesting. Both $`\zeta _0`$ and the intensity of the anomaly are strongly dependent upon strain. The value of $`\zeta _0`$ increases with decreasing $`c/a`$, the intensity reaching its maximum at $`c/a`$=0.97.

## V Summary and conclusions

Our ab initio study of the phonon dispersion and lattice instabilities in cubic and tetragonal Ni2MnGa can be summarized as follows.

First, the parent cubic phase exhibits a marginal elastic instability, C$`{}_{}{}^{}0`$ , meaning that there is almost no energy cost for a small uniform tetragonal distortion.

Second, for $`0.91<c/a<1.06`$ a Kohn anomaly is present due to electron-phonon coupling and Fermi surface nesting. It develops into a deep minimum corresponding to a localized dynamical instability whose wave vector $`\zeta _0`$ is related in a one-to-one fashion to the $`c/a`$ ratio. Therefore, tetragonal structures with $`c/a`$ in this range are unstable towards a particular transverse (110)-shuffling modulation with a specific wavevector $`\zeta _0`$, the one-to-one relationship of the $`c/a`$ ratio and the modulation period being due to the behavior of the topology of the Fermi surface under tetragonal distortions.

Consequently, the energy of the cubic structure may be lowered by any one of a family of deformations, $`\{ϵ,𝐮(\zeta _ϵ)\}`$, consisting of a tetragonal strain, $`ϵ`$, and a superimposed (110)-shuffling modulation, $`𝐮(\zeta _ϵ)`$, whose periodicity, $`\zeta `$, is directly related in a one-to-one fashion to the $`c/a`$ ratio.

The near-vanishing of C together with the fact that the energy surface as a function of $`c/a`$ is remarkably flat permits a modulated ground state with $`c/a`$ significantly different from 1. Indeed, the computed relation between $`c/a`$ and the modulation wavevector is in excellent agreement with structural data on the premartensitic ($`c/a`$ = 1) and martensitic ($`c/a`$ = 0.94) phases of Ni2MnGa, and also with the unmodulated stress-induced phase ($`c/a`$ = 1.18).

The next step is to carry out total energy calculations of the complex modulated structures in order to determine the equilibrium amplitude and phase of the lattice modulation and the associated energy gain. The energy could then be expanded in terms of symmetry invariants of the relevant structural degrees of freedom (strain and modulation) and determine the coefficients of each term of the expansion using ab initio calculations. In this way one could develop an ab-initio based finite-temperature statistical model of the phase transition in Ni2MnGa.

The three phases of Ni2MnGa observed with increasing temperature can be understood as follows. At low temperatures, a minimum-energy modulated tetragonal structure is expected, consistent with the observed $`c/a`$ = 0.94 phase. As temperature increases, the favorable entropy arising from the larger phase space for the low-frequency phonons in the cubic structures leads to a phase transition to the cubic-modulated structure, with a modulation wavevector shifted down from that in the tetragonal phase in accordance with our results. Finally, the frequencies of the unstable phonons associated with the modulation are anharmonically renormalized at the highest temperatures and the observed structure is the cubic Heusler structure, with large fluctuating local distortions.

In conclusion, we have provided a first-principles microscopic explanation for the origin of the physically interesting and technologically important martensitic phase transitions in the ferromagnetic shape-memory Heusler alloy Ni2MnGa.

Calculations in this work have been done using the PWscf package.  We thank Morrel Cohen, Richard James and Xiangyang Huang for valuable discussions, and Vitaly Godlevsky for his help in the early stages of this work.


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# Periodicity and Circle Packings of the Hyperbolic Plane

## 1 Introduction

The theory of sphere packings in the Euclidean space $`^n`$ is well-developed and has deep connections to many areas of mathematics. The central question of that theory is: what is the densest packing of Euclidean space by balls of a fixed radius? A sphere or circle packing $`P`$ is a collection of nonoverlapping congruent balls and the density is defined to be the limit of the relative density of the packing within a ball centered at the origin as the radius of the ball tends to infinity. In symbols,

$$density(P)=\underset{R\mathrm{}}{lim}density(P\text{ in }B_R)$$
(1)
where $`B_R`$ denotes the ball of radius $`R`$ centered at the origin. Of course, the above limit may not exist in which case the density of $`P`$ is not defined. The terms “sphere packing” and “circle packing” are unfortunate because they refer to packings by balls, not spheres or circles but they are standard terms so we will use them.

The central question is considered well-posed because in every dimension $`n`$ there exists a sphere packing $`P`$ whose density is greater than or equal to the density of any other sphere packing. Also, the radius is inconsequential; that is the maximum density attained by a sphere packing by balls of radius $`r`$ is equal to the maximum density attained by a sphere packing by balls of radius $`R`$ for any $`r`$ and $`R`$. This is because homothetic expansion in Euclidean space changes the radius of a packing but not its density. Also, the limit in the definition of density is independent of the choice of origin.

Except in dimensions 0 and 1 where the problem is trivial, proving a sphere packing $`P`$ of $`^n`$ is a densest packing is a very hard problem. Fejes Toth \[Fe5\] gave the first rigorous proof that the hexagonal lattice packing is a densest packing in dimension 2. This is the packing whose set of disk centers coincides with the hexagonal lattice. In 1998, Thomas Hales \[Hal\] produced a proof that the cannonball packing in dimension 3 is a densest packing. But his proof is so computationally intensive that it has not yet been fully refereed. Beyond dimension 3, no sphere packing has been proven to be densest.

Most sphere packing research has focussed on periodic packings, i.e. packings whose symmetry group is cocompact \[CoS\]. This is not too restrictive a hypothesis because in any dimension $`n`$, the supremum over all densities of periodic sphere packings of $`^n`$ is equal to the maximum density possible \[BoR2\]. However it is not known whether the maximum density in any dimension greater than 3 is attained by a periodic packing.

Compared with the Euclidean theory, the study of sphere-packings in $`n`$-dimensional hyperbolic space $`^n`$ is still in its infancy. $`^n`$ is the unique simply connected Riemannian manifold of constant sectional curvature -1. The volume of a ball in $`^n`$ grows exponentially with radius \[Rat\]. Because of this, the volume of space near the boundary of a large ball is significant relative to the volume of the ball. Consequently, the limit in the definition of density of packing $`P`$ may depend on the choice of origin \[BoR2\]. In fact, the limit may exist for some choices of origin but not for others. Also, it is not known whether for every radius $`r`$ and every dimension $`n`$ there exists a packing $`P`$ of $`^n`$ by balls of radius $`r`$ for which the limit exists independently of origin and such that this common value is maximal over all densities of radius $`r`$-sphere packings of $`^n`$ (even if we restrict to those packings whose density exists independently of origin). For these and other reasons, some researchers concluded that the sphere-packing problem is not well-posed in hyperbolic space (\[Bo1-2\], \[BoF\], \[Fe1-5\], \[FeK\]).

One way to avoid this difficulty is to focus on periodic packings. Here we use the term periodic to mean “having cofinite symmetry” rather than the more restrictive “having cocompact symmetry”; these two definitions are equivalent in Euclidean space but different in hyperbolic space. In this case, it is known that the density exists independent of origin and is equal to the relative density of the packing in any fundamental domain for the symmetry group of the packing \[FeK\].

There are no homotheties in hyperbolic space. So, if $`R>r>0`$, the study of radius $`R`$-sphere packings of $`^n`$ may be completely different from the study of radius $`r`$-packings of $`^n`$. It was shown in \[BoR1\] that in any dimension $`n`$, for all but a countable set of radii $`r`$, if $`P`$ is any periodic radius $`r`$-sphere packing then there is another another periodic radius $`r`$-sphere packing $`P^{}`$ with greater density than $`P`$. So, for most radii no periodic packing is “densest”.

The difficulties experienced by earlier researchers have mostly been overcome by a new ergodic-theoretic framework for studying packing problems \[BoR1\]. Oded Schramm suggested an approach to density through the mass-transport principle \[BeS\]. The authors of \[BoR1\] combined this idea with new ergodic theory results of Nevo and Stein \[Nev,NeS\] to produce the new framework. The main idea is to study isometry-invariant probability measures on the space $`𝒫_r^n`$ of radius $`r`$-sphere packings of $`^n`$ in which this space is given the topology of uniform convergence on compact subsets. Such a measure $`\mu `$ is called ergodic if it is not a nontrivial convex sum of other isometry-invariant probability measures on $`𝒫_r^n`$. In this case new ergodic theory results (due to Nevo and Stein \[Nev,NeS\]) and a relatively small additional argument \[BoR2\] imply that for $`\mu `$-almost every packing $`P`$, the density of $`P`$ exists (i.e. the above limit converges) independently of origin. Moreover the density of $`P`$ is equal to the density of $`\mu `$ which is defined to be the $`\mu `$-measure of the set of packings that cover the origin. The space of isometry-invariant probability measures $`M_r^n`$ on $`𝒫_r^n`$ is compact under the weak\* topology and the density function is continuous on $`M_r^n`$. So, there exists an “optimally-dense” measure. That is, a measure $`\mu M_r^n`$ whose density is at least as great as the density of any other measure in $`M_r^n`$ and which is ergodic. The density of such a measure $`\mu `$ is called the optimal density of the sphere of radius $`r`$ in dimension $`n`$ and will be denoted here by $`D^n(r)`$. We call $`D^n`$ the optimum density function.

The new framework generalizes the study of periodic sphere-packings. This is because, as detailed in the next section, for every periodic radius $`r`$-sphere packing $`P`$ there is a unique invariant measure $`\mu M_r^n`$ such that $`\mu `$-almost every packing $`P^{}𝒫_r^n`$ is equal to $`P`$ up to rigid motion. In this case, $`\mu `$ is said to be periodic and its density is equal to the density of $`P`$ \[BoR1\]. We will also call $`\mu `$ periodic if it is a convex sum of periodic measures.

Besides proving a framework for the study of hyperbolic sphere-packings, this new machinery can be applied to the more general study of packings of Euclidean (or hyperbolic) space by bodies other than spheres. Indeed the completely saturated-conjecture was recently solved \[Bow\] using this new technology.

Now that many of the early difficulties in hyperbolic sphere-packing research have been resolved, deeper questions can be asked. This paper focusses on two such questions:

1. Is the set of periodic measures dense in the space $`M_r^n`$ of invariant measures on the space $`𝒫_r^n`$ of radius $`r`$-sphere packings?
2. Is the optimum density function $`D^n:(0,\mathrm{})[0,1]`$ continuous?

An affirmative answer to the first question would imply that optimum density is the supremum over all densities of periodic packings. In the Euclidean setting, it is almost trivial that both questions have “yes” answers. This is a consequence of two facts: the surface area to volume ratio of a Euclidean cube tends to zero as the size of the cube tends to infinity and the cube is a fundamental domain for a cocompact subgroup of Euclidean isometries (namely $`\lambda _n`$ for some $`\lambda >0`$). So any ergodic measure $`\mu `$ can be approximated in the following way. For a given (large) cube choose $`\mu `$-almost any packing $`P`$ and remove from $`P`$ all balls not contained in the cube. Then identify opposite sides of the cube to obtain a packing of an $`n`$-torus. Pull this packing back to a periodic packing on Euclidean space by a universal covering map. There is a unique measure supported on the orbit of this periodic packing. This sequence of periodic measures converges to the original measure as the size of the cube tends to infinity. To approximate an arbitrary invariant measure, represent it as a convex sum (or integral) of ergodic measures and then approximate the ergodic measures. The second question above is trivial in Euclidean space since the optimum density function is constant for every dimension (and equal to the maximum density) because of the existence of homotheties.

But in hyperbolic space, there are no homotheties and the surface area to volume ratio of any large-volume body tends to one instead of zero as the volume tends to infinity. So it is not possible to apply the above methods to the hyperbolic setting. Despite this, we give affirmative answers (theorems 3.1 and 3.2) to both questions in dimension 2.

Here is an outline of the proofs. We first show that any measure $`\mu M_r^2`$ can be approximated by measures supported on radius $`r`$-sphere packings that have “wiggle room”; meaning that the distance between any two sphere centers in such a packing is at least $`R`$ for some $`R>r`$ (independent of the spheres). In Euclidean space, this could be accomplished by composing homothetic expansion with resizing the radius of each ball. In hyperbolic space we use a modification of the inverse image of a covering map (of $`^2`$ to itself) branched over the vertices of a regular tesselation. We call such a map a “branched homothety”; it is introduced and studied in section 6.

It is almost trivial to show that $`D^n`$ is left continuous (in every dimension) because for any optimally dense radius $`R`$-sphere packing measure $`\mu `$ there is an obvious radius $`r<R`$ sphere packing measure $`\mu _r`$ defined by shrinking all the radii of all the packings in the support of $`\mu `$ from $`R`$ to $`r`$. The proof of right-continuity in dimension 2 uses branched homotheties to construct from a radius $`r`$-sphere packing measure $`\mu _r`$ a new radius $`R`$-sphere packing measure $`\mu _R`$ with $`R>r`$ whose density is close to the density of $`\mu _r`$. This answers the second question above (the details are at the end of section 3).

A feature specific to dimension 2 is the existence of cofinite free groups that act on $`^2`$. Fixing such a group $`F`$, we formulate a question analogous to the first one for “colorings” (instead of packings) on $`F`$ (which we may think of as a geometric space by fixing a Cayley graph for $`F`$). By a coloring, we mean a function from $`F`$ to a fixed finite set $`K`$. We solve this question by explicitly constructing the approximating “periodic measures” in section 4. The proof heavily depends on the fact that $`F`$ has a simply-connected Cayley graph.

If a probability measure $`\mu `$ on the space of packings is not invariant under all isometries but is invariant under $`F`$ then we can average it over a fundamental domain for the left action of $`F`$ on the group of all isometries. This yields a new measure $`𝒜(\mu )`$ which is invariant under all isometries. We study this averaging function in section 5.

To answer the first question, we let $`\mu `$ be an invariant measure in $`M_r^2`$. Using branched homotheties, we approximate $`\mu `$ by a new measure $`\mu ^{}`$ supported on packings with wiggle room. We use this wiggle room to construct a probability measure $`\mu ^{\prime \prime }`$ that is supported on packings $`P`$ whose intersection with a fixed fundamental domain for $`F`$ occurs in only finitely many configurations. This new measure is $`F`$-invariant but not fully invariant. We consider the packings in the support of $`\mu ^{\prime \prime }`$ as colorings of $`F`$ and approximate $`\mu ^{\prime \prime }`$ by $`F`$-invariant probability measures $`\mu ^{\prime \prime \prime }`$ supported on packings that have cofinite symmetry. We then average $`\mu ^{\prime \prime \prime }`$ over a fundamental domain for the left-action of $`F`$ on the group of isometries to obtain $`𝒜(\mu ^{\prime \prime \prime })`$. We show that $`𝒜(\mu ^{\prime \prime \prime })`$ is periodic and approximates $`\mu `$. This answers the first question above (the details are in section 3).

## 2 The Framework

The following background material appears in greater detail in \[BoR1-2\]. A sphere packing (by spheres of radius $`r`$ with $`0<r<\mathrm{}`$) is a collection of radius $`r`$ balls in $`^n`$ so that distinct balls have disjoint interiors. We say that a packing $`P`$ has radius $`r`$ if it is radius $`r`$-sphere packing.

We let $`𝒫=𝒫^n`$ be the space of all locally finite collections $`P`$ of spheres in $`^n`$ with the topology of uniform convergence on compact subsets. Note that spheres of a collection $`P`$ in $`𝒫`$ are allowed to overlap.

$`𝒫^n`$ is a locally compact metrizable space. We let $`𝒫_r^n=𝒫_r`$ be the subspace of all radius $`r`$ packings. For each $`r`$, $`𝒫_r^n`$ is compact. The group $`Isom^+(^n)`$ of orientation preserving isometries of hyperbolic space acts on $`𝒫^n`$ in the natural way. We let $`M^n`$ be the space of Borel probability measures on $`𝒫^n`$ that are invariant with respect to the action of $`Isom^+(^n)`$. By invariant we mean that if $`\mu M^n,E𝒫^n`$ and $`gIsom^+(^n)`$ then $`\mu (gE)=\mu (E)`$. We consider $`M^n`$ with the weak\* topology which is defined as follows. If $`\{\lambda _j\}_jM^n`$ then $`\lambda _j`$ converges to $`\mu `$ (weak\*) if any only if $`\lambda _j(f)\mu (f)`$ for every continuous function $`f:𝒫^n`$. We let $`M_r^nM^n`$ be the subspace of measures supported on $`𝒫_r^n`$. Then $`M_r^n`$ is compact for each $`r`$ by the Banach-Alaoglu theorem. When the dimension $`n`$ is understood, we write $`M_r`$ for $`M_r^n`$.

If $`P𝒫_r^n`$ has symmetry group $`Sym(P)<Isom^+(^n)`$ that is cofinite (in which case we say $`P`$ is periodic) then its orbit $`O(P)=Isom^+(^n)P𝒫_r^n`$ is naturally homeomorphic with $`Isom^+(^n)/Sym(P)`$ (by a homeomorphism which intertwines the action of $`Isom^+(^n)`$). Therefore the Haar measure on $`Isom^+(^n)/Sym(P)`$ pulls back to an isometry-invariant measure $`\mu `$ on $`O(P)`$ which we may normalize so that $`\mu (O(P))=1`$. We extend $`\mu `$ to all of $`𝒫_r^n`$ by setting $`\mu (𝒫_r^nO(P))=0`$. Now $`\mu M_r^n`$. If a measure $`\mu M_r^n`$ is obtained from a periodic packing $`P`$ in this way, we say that $`\mu `$ is a periodic measure. We will also say that $`\mu M_r^n`$ is periodic if it in the convex hull of all such measures. (This definition differs slightly from \[BoR1-2\] in that now we are allowing the symmetry group of $`P`$ to be cofinite but not necessarily cocompact).

For convenience we let $`𝒪^n`$ be a point we will call the origin. As suggested by Oded Schramm, we define the density of a measure $`\mu M_r^n`$ by

$$density(\mu )=\mu [\{P𝒫_r|\text{ the origin is in a ball of }P\}]$$
(2)
It is shown in \[BoR1,2\] that if $`P`$ is a periodic packing with corresponding periodic measure $`\mu M_r^n`$ then the density of $`\mu `$ is equal to the relative density of $`P`$ in any fundamental domain of $`Sym(P)`$.

A measure $`\mu M_r^n`$ is said to be ergodic if it is not a nontrivial convex sum of two other measures in $`M_r^n`$ , i.e. if $`\mu =t\lambda _1+(1t)\lambda _2`$ with $`t(0,1)`$ and $`\lambda _iM_r^n`$ (for $`i=1,2`$) then $`\lambda _1=\lambda _2=\mu `$. It was shown in \[BoR1,2\] that if $`\mu M_r^n`$ is ergodic then $`\mu `$-almost every packing $`P`$ is such that the orbit $`O(P)`$ is dense in the support of $`\mu `$. Given an ergodic measure $`\mu M_r^n`$, almost every packing $`P𝒫^n`$ is such that for any point $`p^n`$

$$density(\mu )=\underset{R\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{vol\left(PB_R(p)\right)}{vol\left(B_R(p)\right)}$$
(3)
where $`B_R(p)`$ is the ball of radius $`R`$ centered at $`p`$. Here we have abused notation by identifying $`P`$ with the closed subset equal to the union of all balls in $`P`$.

The following lemma and proof are essentially contained in \[BoR1,2\] although they are not explicitly stated.

###### Lemma 2.1.

The function $`density:_rM_r^n[0,1]`$ is continuous.

###### Proof.

Let $`A_0`$ be the set of all packings $`P𝒫`$ such that the origin is contained in a ball of $`P`$. Then, by definition $`density(\mu )=\mu (A_0)`$ for all $`\mu M^n`$. For $`ϵ>0`$, let $`A_ϵ^+`$ be the set of all packings $`P𝒫`$ such that for any $`r`$ the origin is less than a distance $`r(1+ϵ)`$ from the center of a radius $`r`$-ball of $`P`$. Let $`A_ϵ^{}`$ be the set of all packings $`P𝒫`$ such that for any $`r`$ the origin is at most a distance $`r(1ϵ)`$ of the center of a radius $`r`$-ball of $`P`$. It is clear that $`A_ϵ^{}A_0A_ϵ^+`$ and that $`A_ϵ^{}`$ is closed in $`𝒫^n`$ and $`A_ϵ^+`$ is open in $`𝒫^n`$. By Urysohn’s lemma, there exists a continuous function $`f_ϵ:𝒫[0,1]`$ such that $`f_ϵ(P)=1`$ for all $`PA_ϵ^{}`$ and $`f_ϵ(P)=0`$ for all $`PA_ϵ^+`$. Therefore $`\mu (A_ϵ^{})\mu (f_ϵ)\mu (A_ϵ^+)`$.

Fix $`\mu M_r^n`$ (for some $`r`$) and choose $`0<ϵ<1`$. It is not hard to show that

$`\mu (A_ϵ^+)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{vol\left(B_{r+rϵ}(𝒪)\right)}{vol\left(B_r(𝒪)\right)}}density(\mu )`$ (4)
$`\mu (A_ϵ^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{vol\left(B_{rrϵ}(𝒪)\right)}{vol\left(B_r(𝒪)\right)}}density(\mu ).`$ (5)
Suppose $`\mu _iM_{r_i}^n`$ and $`\mu _i\mu `$ (as $`i\mathrm{}`$). Choose $`i`$ large enough so that $`|r_ir|<ϵ`$. By weak\* convergence, $`\mu _i(f_ϵ)\mu (f_ϵ)`$. Hence

$`{\displaystyle \frac{vol(B_{rrϵ})}{vol(B_r)}}\underset{i}{lim\; sup}density(\mu _i)`$ $`=`$ $`\underset{i}{lim\; sup}{\displaystyle \frac{vol(B_{r_ir_iϵ})}{vol(B_{r_i})}}density(\mu _i)`$ (6)
$`=`$ $`\underset{i}{lim\; sup}\mu _i(A_ϵ^{})`$ (7)
$``$ $`\underset{i}{lim\; sup}\mu _i(f_ϵ)`$ (8)
$`=`$ $`\mu (f_ϵ)`$ (9)
$`=`$ $`\underset{i}{lim\; inf}\mu _i(f_ϵ)`$ (10)
$``$ $`\underset{i}{lim\; inf}{\displaystyle \frac{vol(B_{r_i+r_iϵ})}{vol(B_{r_i})}}density(\mu _i)`$ (11)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{vol(B_{r+rϵ})}{vol(B_r)}}\underset{i}{lim\; inf}density(\mu _i).`$ (12)
where $`vol(B_r)`$ is the volume of the ball of radius $`r`$. Taking $`ϵ0`$ proves the lemma.

Since $`M_r^n`$ is compact there exists an ergodic measure $`\mu `$ (called an optimally dense measure) such that $`density(\mu )=\mathrm{max}\{density(\lambda )|,\lambda M_r^n\}=:D^n(r)`$.

## 3 Results

The main results are:

###### Theorem 3.1.

For any radius $`r(0,\mathrm{})`$, the space of periodic measures in $`𝒫_r^2`$ is dense in $`M_r^2`$.

###### Corollary 3.2.

$`D^2(r)=sup\{density(\mu )|\mu M_r^2`$ is periodic $`\}`$.

###### Theorem 3.3.

The optimum density function $`D^2:(0,\mathrm{})[0,1]`$ is continuous.

Remark: Both theorems apply to dimension 2 only. All higher dimensional cases of the above theorems are unknown. Henceforth we will write $`D`$ for $`D^2`$, $`M_r`$ for $`M_r^2`$, etc.

To motivate our techniques, consider the following discretized version of the problem of which theorem 3.1 answers a special case. Let $`F`$ be a discrete group and let $`K`$ be a topological space. Let $`X=X(F,K)`$ denote the space of all functions $`\varphi :FK`$ with the topology of uniform convergence on finite subsets. If $`K`$ is compact, $`X`$ is a compact metrizable space on which $`F`$ acts by $`f\varphi (g)=\varphi (f^1g)`$ for any $`f,gF`$ and $`\varphi :FK`$. We let $`M=M(F,K)`$ be the space of Borel probability measures on $`X`$ that are invariant under this action (with the weak\* topology). We say that $`\mu M`$ is periodic if its support is finite. We believe the following problem to be of intrinsic interest:

Problem: Characerize those discrete groups $`F`$ with the property that the space of periodic measures is dense in $`M(F,K)`$ where $`K`$ is a finite set of at least 2 elements.

In section 4 we prove the following:

###### Theorem 3.4.

If $`F`$ is a finitely generated free group and $`K`$ is a finite set, then

1. the subspace of periodic measures is dense in $`M(F,K)`$,
2. suppose $`\psi _1,..,\psi _mX`$ and $`EF`$ is a finite set. If $`\mu M(F,K)`$ is supported on the set $`Y:=\{\varphi X|i\text{ such that }\varphi |_E=\psi _i|_E\}`$ then there exists periodic measures $`\lambda _jM(F,K)`$ also supported on $`Y`$ such that $`\lambda _j\mu `$.

Remark: We do not know if this theorem holds when $`F`$ is the fundamental group of a closed surface of genus $`2`$ or when $`F`$ is the fundamental group of the figure 8 knot complement (for example).

It is possible to apply this theorem to prove theorem 3.1 only because of the existence of cofinite free discrete subgroups of $`Isom^+(^2)`$. However, we first need a nice way of separating the circles of a circle packing. For this purpose, in section 6 we prove

###### Theorem 3.5.

There exists a natural family $`\{_{s,a}\}`$ of maps from $`M_r`$ to $`M_r`$ indexed by integers $`(s,a)`$ such that there exists a regular hyperbolic polygon with $`s`$ sides and angles equal to $`2\pi /a`$ such that the following holds.

1. For every such $`(s,a)`$ there exists an $`R>r`$ such that for any $`\mu M_r`$, $`_{s,a}(\mu )`$ is supported on the space of all packings $`P`$ in $`𝒫_r`$ such that any two centers of distinct disks in $`P`$ are at least a distance $`2R`$ apart.
2. For fixed $`s`$, $`_{s,a}`$ converges to the identity pointwise as $`a\mathrm{}`$.
3. $`density\left(_{s,a}(\mu )\right)`$ converges to $`density(\mu )`$ as $`a\mathrm{}`$.

We now prove theorems 3.1 and 3.2 given theorems 3.3, 3.4 and the results of section 5.

###### Proof.

(of theorem 3.1): Let $`r>0`$ and $`ϵ>0`$ be given. Let $`\mu `$ be a measure in $`M_r^2`$. Since, for fixed $`s3`$, $`_{s,a}(\mu )`$ converges to $`\mu `$ as $`a\mathrm{}`$ it suffices to show that the measures $`_{s,a}(\mu )`$ are approximatable by periodic measures. So we may assume that there is an $`R>r`$ such that $`\mu `$ is concentrated on the set of all packings by disks of radius $`r`$ in which the centers of any two disks are at least a distance $`2R`$ apart.

Let $`F<Isom^+(^2)`$ be a discrete cofinite finitely generated free group. It is a standard fact that such subgroups exist. For example, $`F`$ could be a finite index subgroup of $`PSL_2()`$ (where we identify $`Isom^+(^2)`$ with $`PSL_2()`$ in the standard way \[Rat\]).

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$ be a convex fundamental domain for $`F`$. Consider the set $`K_{\mathrm{}}`$ of all discrete subsets of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. We topologize $`K_{\mathrm{}}`$ with the topology of uniform convergence on compact subsets. Recall that $`X(F,K_{\mathrm{}})`$ is the set of all functions from $`F`$ to $`K_{\mathrm{}}`$ with the topology of uniform convergence on compact finite subsets. In order to transfer the problem to a similar problem on the free group $`F`$, we define $`\mathrm{\Phi }:𝒫X(F,K_{\mathrm{}})`$ by

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(P)(f)=\left(f^1C(P)\right)\mathrm{\Delta }.$$
(13)
where $`C(P)`$ denotes the set of centers of disks in $`P`$. We claim that $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is an $`F`$-equivariant bijection. So let $`f_1,f_2F`$. Then

$`\mathrm{\Phi }(f_1P)(f_2)`$ $`=`$ $`f_2^1(f_1C(P))\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (14)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Phi }(P)(f_1^1f_2)`$ (15)
$`=`$ $`[f_1\mathrm{\Phi }(P)](f_2).`$ (16)
Hence, $`\mathrm{\Phi }(f_1P)=f_1\mathrm{\Phi }(P)`$ for any $`f_1F`$, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is $`F`$-equivariant. To see that $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is invertible, define $`\mathrm{\Psi }:X(F,K_{\mathrm{}})𝒫`$ by

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\varphi )=_{fF}fC^1\left(\varphi (f)\right).$$
(17)
where $`C^1\left(\varphi (f)\right)`$ denotes the collection of radius $`r`$ disks whose set of centers is exactly $`\varphi (f)`$. We check that $`\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the identity:

$`\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{\Phi }(P))`$ $`=`$ $`_{fF}fC^1\left(\mathrm{\Phi }(P)(f)\right)`$ (18)
$`=`$ $`_{fF}fC^1\left(\left(f^1C(P)\mathrm{\Delta }\right)\right)`$ (19)
$`=`$ $`_{fF}Pf\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (20)
$`=`$ $`P.`$ (21)
Similarly, we can check that $`\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is the identity.

$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is not continuous because points can cross the boundary of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ continuously in $`^2`$. However, it easy to see that $`\mathrm{\Phi }^1(=\mathrm{\Psi })`$ is continuous and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is Borel. Since $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }^1`$ are $`F`$-equivariant, they induce maps $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}:MM(F,K_{\mathrm{}})`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1:M(F,K_{\mathrm{}})M_F`$ where $`M_F`$ is the space of measures on $`𝒫`$ that are $`F`$-invariant (but not necessarily $`Isom^+(^2)`$-invariant). By the results of section 5, there is a (natural) continuous map $`𝒜:M_FM`$ that restricts to the identity on $`M`$. We will show that $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}(\mu )`$ is approximatable by periodic measures $`\lambda _iM(F,K_{\mathrm{}})`$ such that for each $`i`$, $`𝒜\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1(\lambda _i)`$ is a measure on $`𝒫_r`$ (not just on $`𝒫`$). By continuity, it follows that $`𝒜\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1(\lambda _i)\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1\mathrm{\Phi }_{}(\mu )=\mu `$. Since the support of $`\lambda _i`$ is finite (by definition of periodic measure) and $`\mathrm{\Phi }^1`$ commutes with $`F`$, it follows that $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1(\lambda _i)`$ is also supported on a finite set (for each $`i`$). By lemma 5.3 this implies that $`𝒜\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1(\lambda _i)`$ is a periodic measure (for each $`i`$). This completes the theorem (given the existence of the sequence $`\{\lambda _i\}`$).

The existence of $`\{\lambda _i\}`$ does not follow immediately from theorem 3.3 since $`K_{\mathrm{}}`$ is infinite. So we approximate $`K_{\mathrm{}}`$ by suitably chosen finite sets as follows. First fix a basepoint $`p\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Define $`K_x=\{kK_{\mathrm{}}|kB_x(p)\}`$ (where $`B_x(p)`$ is the closed ball of radius $`x`$ centered at $`p`$).

Let $`x>0`$ and let $`\delta >0`$ be such that $`Rr>\delta `$. Since $`B_x(p)\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is compact, there exists a finite partition $`\{O_i\}`$ of $`K_x`$ such that the diameter of $`O_i`$ (with respect to the Hausdorff distance on discrete subsets of $`\mathrm{\Delta }B_x(p)`$) is at most $`\delta `$ for all $`i`$. Recall that the Hausdorff distance between two closed sets $`E_1`$ and $`E_2`$ is the smallest number $`\rho `$ such that $`E_1`$ is contained in the $`\rho `$-neighborhood of $`E_2`$ and $`E_2`$ is contained in the $`\rho `$-neighborhood of $`E_1`$. By a partition, we mean that $`O_iO_j=\mathrm{}`$ if $`ij`$ and $`_iO_i=K_x`$. Let $`k_iO_i`$ (for each $`i`$). Let $`\pi _{x,\delta }=\pi :K_{\mathrm{}}K_x`$ be defined by $`\pi (k)=k_i`$ if $`kB_x(p)O_i`$. Note that if $`kK_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`x_i>0,\delta _i>0`$ are such that $`x_i\mathrm{}`$ and $`\delta _i0`$ as $`i\mathrm{}`$ then $`\pi _{x,\delta }(k)k`$ (in the topology of uniform convergence on compact subsets). Let $`K(x,\delta )=\{k_1,k_2\mathrm{}\}`$.

The map $`\pi _{x,\delta }`$ induces maps $`L(x,\delta )`$ from $`X(F,K_{\mathrm{}})`$ to $`X(F,K(x,\delta ))`$ and $`L(x,\delta )_{}`$ from $`M(F,K_{\mathrm{}})`$ to $`M(F,K(x,\delta ))`$ defined in the natural way as follows.

$`L(x,\delta )(\varphi )(f)`$ $`=`$ $`\pi _{x,\delta }\left(\varphi (f)\right)`$ (22)
$`L(x,\delta )_{}(\lambda )(E)`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda \left(L(x,\delta )^1(E)\right).`$ (23)
for any $`\varphi X(F,K(x,\delta ))`$ and $`EX(F,K(x,\delta ))`$.

Let $`\mu _{x,\delta }`$ be the image of $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}(\mu )`$ under $`L(x,\delta )_{}`$. Since for any $`kK_{\mathrm{}}`$, $`\pi _{x,\delta }(k)k`$ (as $`x\mathrm{}`$ and $`\delta 0`$ simultaneously) $`\mu _{x,\delta }`$ converges (weak\*) to $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}(\mu )`$. Since $`\delta <Rr`$ and $`\mu `$ is supported on the subset of $`𝒫_r`$ consisting of those packings $`P`$ whose set of centers of $`C(P)`$ is also the set of centers of a packing of radius $`R`$ it follows that $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1(\mu _{x,\delta })`$ is supported on $`𝒫_r`$ (not just $`𝒫`$). To be pedantic, the measure $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1(\mu _{x,\delta })`$ is supported on packings $`P`$ whose set of centers $`C(P)`$ is also the set of centers of a packing of radius $`R\delta >r`$.

Since $`\mu _{x,\delta }M(F,K(x,\delta ))`$ and $`K(x,\delta )`$ is a finite set, it follows from theorem 3.3 that $`\mu _{x,\delta }`$ is approximatable by periodic measures. Since $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1(\mu _{x,\delta })`$ is supported on $`𝒫_r`$ (and since this is a local property) the last sentence of theorem 3.3 implies that $`\lambda _i`$ can be chosen so that $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^1(\lambda _i)`$ is also supported on $`𝒫_r`$ (for all $`i`$). This finishes the proof of the existence of the sequence $`\{\lambda _i\}`$ and the theorem.

Remark: The proof above shows that more is true. For any cofinite free group $`F`$, the supremum of densities of periodic packings (by circles of radius $`r`$) in which the symmetry groups of the packings are (finite-index) subgroups of $`F`$ is equal to the optimum density $`D(r)`$. Therefore, one could approximate $`D(r)`$ by considering packings in, say, surfaces of the form $`^2/G`$ where $`G`$ is a finite index subgroup of $`PSL_2()`$.

Before beginning the proof of theorem 3.2 we need the following:

###### Lemma 3.6.

For every dimension $`n`$, the function $`D^n:(0,\mathrm{})[0,1]`$ is continuous from the left.

###### Proof.

Since $`_{tsr}M_s^n`$ is compact, if $`\mu _s`$ is an optimally dense measure in $`M_s`$ (for $`t<s<r`$), there exists a limit point $`\mu _r`$ of $`\{\mu _s\}`$ with $`\mu _r`$ concentrated on $`𝒫_r`$. Since the density function is continuous (lemma 2.1), $`lim_{sr}density(\mu _s)=density(\mu _r)`$. Since $`\mu _s`$ is optimally dense, $`lim_{sr}D^n(s)D^n(r)`$.

For $`s<r`$ define the map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{r,s}:𝒫_r𝒫_s`$ by stating that the center set of $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{r,s}(P)`$ is equal to the center set of $`P`$. Intuitively, $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{r,s}`$ is a “shrinking map” since it fixes the center set but shrinks the radii. Let $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{r,s}:M_rM_s`$ be defined by $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{r,s}(\mu )(E)=\mu (\mathrm{\Psi }_{r,s}^1(E))`$ for any $`E𝒫_{r,s}`$ and $`\mu M_r`$. Then, it is easy to see (cf \[BoR1\]) that

$$density\left(\mathrm{\Psi }_{r,s}(\mu )\right)=\frac{vol(B_s)}{vol(B_r)}density(\mu )$$
(24)
where $`vol(B_s)`$ denotes the volume (in $`^n`$) of the ball of radius $`s`$. Taking $`\mu `$ above to be optimally dense, it follows that

$$D^n(s)\frac{vol(B_s)}{vol(B_r)}D^n(r).$$
(25)
Since $`lim_{sr}\frac{vol(B_s)}{vol(B_r)}=1`$

$$\underset{sr}{lim}D^n(s)D^n(r).$$
(26)
Combining this with the first paragraph, we have $`lim_{sr}D^n(s)=D^n(r)`$. So $`D^n`$ is continuous from the left.

The proof of theorem 3.2 is quite similar to the above lemma although the role of the “shrinking map” will now be played by the branched homothety map $``$ (given by theorem 3.4) composed with an “expanding map”.

###### Proof.

(of theorem 3.2):

Let $`r>0`$ be given. Because $`_{rRR_2}M_R`$ is compact if $`\mu _R`$ is an optimally dense measure in $`M_R`$ (for all $`r<R`$), there exists a limit point $`\mu _r`$ of $`\{\mu _R|R>r\}`$ such that $`\mu _r`$ is concentrated on $`𝒫_r`$. Since the density function is continuous, $`lim_{Rr}density(\mu _R)=density(\mu _r)`$. Since $`\mu _R`$ is optimally dense, $`lim_{Rr+}D^2(R)D^2(r)`$.

Let $`ϵ>0`$ and $`\mu M_r`$ be given. By theorem 3.4, there exists a map $`:M_rM_r`$ such that $`(\mu )`$ is supported on packings $`P𝒫_r`$ such that if $`p_1,p_2`$ are centers of distinct circles in $`P`$ then $`d(p_1,p_2)2R`$ for some $`R>r`$ and $`density\left((\mu )\right)(1ϵ)density(\mu )`$. There is a (continuous) function $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ (the “expanding map”) from the support of $`(\mu )`$ into $`𝒫_R`$ such that the center set of $`\mathrm{\Psi }(P)`$ is the center set of $`P`$ for all $`P`$ in the support of $`\mu `$. Let $`B(\mu )M_R`$ be defined by $`B(\mu )(E)=(\mu )(\mathrm{\Psi }^1(E))`$ for any $`E𝒫_R`$. Then $`B(\mu )M_R`$ and it is not hard to show that

$$density(B(\mu ))=\frac{area(B_R)}{area(B_r)}density((\mu ))\frac{area(B_R)}{area(B_r)}(1ϵ)density(\mu )$$
(27)
where $`area(B_R)`$ denotes the area (in $`^2`$) of a radius $`R`$-ball. Taking $`\mu `$ above to be optimally dense, we see that

$$D^2(R)\frac{area(B_R)}{area(B_r)}(1ϵ)D^2(r).$$
(28)
Since $`lim_{Rr}\frac{vol(B_R)}{vol(B_r)}=1`$ and we may choose $`ϵ>0`$ arbitrarily close to zero,

$$\underset{Rr+}{lim}D^2(R)D^2(r).$$
(29)
Combining this with the first paragraph, we have $`lim_{Rr+}D^2(R)=D^2(r)`$. So $`D^2`$ is continuous from the right. Combining this with lemma 3.5 above, $`D^2`$ is continuous.

## 4 Periodic approximations to random invariant colorings of the free group on $`n`$ generators

In this section we prove theorem 3.3.

Let $`F_n`$ be the free group on $`n`$ generators. Let $`K`$ be a finite set with $`k`$ elements. Let $`X=X(F_n,K)`$ be the space of functions from $`F_n`$ to $`K`$ with the topology of uniform convergence on finite subsets. $`X`$ is a compact metrizable space. $`F_n`$ acts on $`X`$ by $`g\varphi (h)=\varphi (g^1h)`$ where $`g,hF_n`$ and $`\varphi X`$. Let $`M(F_n,K)`$ be the set of all Borel probability measures on $`X`$ that are invariant under the action of $`F_n`$. We will consider $`M(F_n,K)`$ with the weak\* topology. An element $`\mu `$ in $`M`$ is said to be periodic if its support is finite.

It will be convenient to fix a Cayley graph $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ for $`F_n`$. To do this we choose a standard set $`\{g_1,..,g_n\}`$ of generators of $`F_n`$. The vertices of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are the elements of $`F_n`$ and for every $`gF_n`$ and generator $`g_i`$ there is an edge between $`g`$ and $`gg_i`$ and an edge between $`g`$ and $`gg_i^1`$. Note $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is a $`2n`$-regular tree. The distance $`d`$ between elements of $`F_n`$ is defined to be their distance in the graph $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ where each edge has length $`1`$. We let $`B_r(g)`$ denote the radius $`r`$-ball centered at $`g`$ in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (or in $`F_n`$).

The topology of $`X`$ is generated by its cylinder sets which are defined as follows. Let $`E`$ be a finite subset of $`F_n`$ and let $`\varphi `$ be any element of $`X`$. Then $`Z(E,\varphi ):=\{\psi X|\varphi |_E=\psi |_E\}`$. We will be particularly interested in the case in which $`E=B_r(id)`$. We will say that $`\lambda M(F_n,K)`$ is a $`(r,ϵ)`$-approximation of $`\mu M(F_n,K)`$ if

$$\left|\lambda \left(Z(B_r(id),\varphi )\right)\mu \left(Z(B_r(id),\varphi )\right)\right|<ϵ$$
(30)
for all $`\varphi X`$. Its obvious that if $`\lambda _i`$ is a $`(r_i,0)`$-approximation to $`\mu `$ and $`r_i\mathrm{}`$ as $`i\mathrm{}`$ then $`\lambda _i`$ converges to $`\mu `$. Also, if $`\lambda _i`$ is a $`(r,ϵ_i)`$-approximation to $`\mu `$ and $`ϵ_i0`$ as $`i\mathrm{}`$ then any limit point of $`\lambda _i`$ is a $`(r,0)`$-approximation to $`\mu `$. So for the first half of the theorem it suffices to show that given any $`(r,ϵ)`$ with $`r,ϵ>0`$ and any measure $`\mu M(F_n,K)`$ there exists a periodic $`(r,ϵ)`$-approximation to $`\mu `$. Below, we construct such an approximation.

First, we define a directed, labeled finite graph $`G`$ that captures the radius $`r`$ information of $`X`$ (it will soon be clear what this means). The vertices of $`G`$ are equivalences classes of elements of $`X`$ where we say that $`\varphi \psi `$ if $`\varphi `$ restricted to $`B_r(id)`$ is equal to $`\psi `$ restricted to $`B_r(id)`$. We denote the equivalence class of $`\varphi `$ by $`[\varphi ]`$. There is a directed edge (denoted $`e(\varphi ,i)`$ from $`[\varphi ]`$ to $`[g_i\varphi ]`$ labeled $`i`$ for each $`\varphi `$ and for each $`i`$. Note that $`[g_i\varphi ]`$ is not necessarily equal to $`g_i[\varphi ]`$.

Next, we define a weight function $`w`$ on $`G`$. We let $`w([\varphi ])=\mu \left(Z(B_r(id),\varphi )\right))`$ for $`\varphi X`$. We let $`w\left(e(\varphi ,i)\right)=\mu (Z\left(B_r(id)B_r(g_i)\right),\varphi )`$. There are two basic properties satisfied by $`w`$. First, the sum of the vertex weights is one (because $`\mu `$ is a probability measure and the corresponding sets partition $`X`$). Second, for any vertex $`v`$ and any $`i`$ ($`1in`$), the sum of the weights of edges labeled $`i`$ going out of $`v`$ is equal to the weight of $`v`$ (because $`\mu `$ is $`F_n`$-invariant). Similarly, for any vertex $`v`$ and any $`i`$ ($`1in`$), the sum of the weights of edges labeled $`i`$ going into $`v`$ is equal to the weight of $`v`$ These two properties are two sets of linear equations in the weights. If $`\mu `$ is periodic and ergodic then all of the weights are rational. To get an approximation to $`\mu `$, we approximate $`w`$ by a rational function as follows. Because the linear equations defined by the two basic properties have rational coefficients, there is a function $`w_p`$ on $`G`$ satisfying both properies and such that $`w_p`$ takes values in the nonnegative rational numbers and such that $`|w_p(v)w(v)|<ϵ`$ for all vertices $`v`$. We may also assume that $`w_p(e)=0`$ for any edge in which $`w(e)=0`$.

We use the weight function $`w_p`$ to construct a disjoint union $`Q=Q_i`$ of quotient graphs $`Q_i`$ of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and functions $`\varphi _i`$ from the vertex set of $`Q_i`$ to $`K`$. After this is done, we will lift the functions $`\varphi _i`$ to the vertices of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and thereby obtain functions $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_i:V(\mathrm{\Gamma })K`$ that have finite orbits under the action of $`F_n`$. Because of these orbits are finite, there is naturally associated to $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_i`$ a periodic measure $`\lambda _iM`$ (with support equal to the orbit of $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_i`$). We will show that an appropriate convex sum $`\lambda `$ of the $`\lambda _i`$ is an $`(r,ϵ)`$-approximation to $`\mu `$.

Let $`N`$ be a natural number such that $`Nw_p`$ takes values only in the nonnegative integers. We will construct a (directed and labeled) graph $`Q`$ such that each vertex is labeled $`[\varphi ]`$ for some $`\varphi X`$, each edge is labeled $`e(\varphi ,i)`$ for some $`\varphi X`$ and $`1in`$ and each vertex has exactly one edge labeled $`i`$ going out of it and one edge labeled $`i`$ going in to it. Also we choose $`Q`$ so that the number of vertices of $`Q`$ labeled $`[\varphi ]`$ is exactly $`Nw_p(\varphi )`$ and the number of edges of $`Q`$ labeled $`e(\varphi ,i)`$ is exactly $`Nw_p(e(\varphi ,i))`$.

Let $`Q_0`$ be the edge-less labeled graph with $`N`$ vertices such that exactly $`Nw_p([\varphi ])`$ vertices are labeled $`[\varphi ]`$. For each $`e(\varphi ,i)`$ let $`b_1(\varphi ,i)`$ be a set of vertices of $`Q_0`$ labeled $`[\varphi ]`$ that contains exactly $`Nw_p(e(\varphi ,i))`$ elements. Also, choose these sets so that if $`[g_i\varphi ][g_i\psi ]`$ then $`b_1(\varphi ,i)`$ is disjoint from $`b_1(\psi ,i)`$. We can do this by the second basic property. Next we let $`b_2(\varphi ,i)`$ be a set of vertices of $`Q_0`$ labeled $`[g_i\varphi ]`$ that contains exactly $`Nw_p(e(\varphi ,i))`$ elements. Likewise, we can do this so that if $`[\varphi ][\psi ]`$ then $`b_2(\varphi ,i)`$ is disjoint from $`b_2(\psi ,i)`$. Next we let $`B(\varphi ,i):b_1(\varphi ,i)b_2(\varphi ,i)`$ be a bijection. Now we let $`Q`$ be the graph obtained from $`Q_0`$ by adjoining an edge from $`v`$ to $`B(\varphi ,i)(v)`$ labeled $`e(\varphi ,i)`$ for each $`v,\varphi ,i`$. It is easy to see that $`Q`$ satisfies the properties stated above.

$`Q`$ has finitely many connected components $`Q_1,..,Q_m`$. For each $`Q_i`$, let $`\varphi _i`$ be the map from the vertex set of $`Q_i`$ to $`K`$ given by $`\varphi _i(v)=\varphi (id)`$ where $`v`$ is labeled $`[\varphi ]`$ for some $`\varphi X`$. Up to this point we have not used anything about $`F_n`$ other than it is a finitely generated group but now we will. Because $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is simply connected, there exists a covering map $`C_i:\mathrm{\Gamma }Q_i`$. Moreover, we may choose $`C_i`$ so that it respects the labels. In other words, the edge connecting $`C_i(g)`$ to $`C_i(gg_j)`$ is labeled $`j`$ for any $`1jn`$. Note that $`C_i`$ is uniquely determined by $`C_i(id)`$. We let $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_iX`$ be defined by $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_i(g)=\varphi _iC_i(g)`$. It is clear than $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_i`$ has finite $`F_n`$-orbit since $`Q_i`$ is finite. Let $`\lambda _i`$ be the unique measure in $`M(F_n,K)`$ whose support is equal to the orbit of $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_i`$. We let $`\lambda =(1/N)\mathrm{\Sigma }_i|V(Q_i)|\lambda _i`$ where $`|V(Q_i)|`$ is the number of vertices in the graph $`Q_i`$. Recall that $`N`$ is the total number of vertices of $`Q`$ so $`\lambda `$ is a probability measure. It is clear that $`\lambda `$ has finite support and therefore is periodic.

We claim that $`\lambda `$ is a $`(r,ϵ)`$-approximation to $`\mu `$. Let $`N_i([\varphi ])`$ be the number of vertices of $`Q_i`$ labeled $`[\varphi ]`$. Then,

$`\lambda \left(Z(B_r(id),\varphi )\right)`$ $`=`$ $`(1/N)\mathrm{\Sigma }_i|V(Q_i)|\lambda _i\left(Z(B_r(id),\varphi )\right)`$ (31)
$`=`$ $`(1/N)\mathrm{\Sigma }_iN_i([\varphi ])`$ (32)
$`=`$ $`(1/N)Nw_p([\varphi ])`$ (33)
$`=`$ $`w_p([\varphi ]).`$ (34)
The second equation holds because $`\frac{N_i([\varphi ])}{|V(Q_i)|}`$ is the fraction of vertices of $`Q_i`$ that are labeled $`[\varphi ]`$. The third equation holds because $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_iN_i([\varphi ])`$ is the total number of vertices in $`_iQ_i=Q`$ labeled $`[\varphi ]`$. By construction this is equal to $`Nw_p([\varphi ])`$. Since $`\mu (Z(B_r(id),\varphi ))=w([\varphi ])`$ and $`\left|w([\varphi ])w_p([\varphi ])\right|<ϵ`$ we are done with the first half. Let $`EF`$ be a finite set. For $`ϵ>0`$ and $`r>0`$ large enough so that $`EB_r(id)`$, the construction above yields a periodic measure $`\lambda `$ that is a $`(r,ϵ)`$-approximation of $`\mu `$ and such that $`\lambda \left(Z(B_r(id),\varphi )\right)=0`$ if $`\mu \left(Z(B_r(id),\varphi )\right)=0`$ (for any $`\varphi X`$). This holds because of the requirement that $`w_p(e)=0`$ whenever $`w(e)=0`$. This implies the last half of theorem 3.1.

## 5 Averaging partially invariant measures

In the section we study the properties of a certain averaging process for partially invariant measures. These are necessary results to define the branched homothety $``$ of theorem 3.4. Let $`(X,\mu )`$ be a probability space on which a locally compact unimodular group $`𝒢`$ acts (for the applications of this paper $`𝒢=Isom^+(^2)`$ and $`X𝒫_r`$ is a compact space of packings). Assume that $`\mu `$ is invariant under a cofinite subgroup $`G<𝒢`$. By invariant we mean that $`\mu (gE)=\mu (E)`$ for all $`gG,EX`$. We let $`A(\mu )`$ be the probability measure on $`X`$ defined by

$$𝒜(\mu )(E)=\frac{1}{vol()}_{}\mu (gE)𝑑vol$$
(35)
where $``$ is a fundamental domain for the left action of $`G`$ on $`𝒢`$, $`vol()`$ is a Haar measure on $`𝒢`$ and $`EX`$. We will prove that $`𝒜(\mu )`$ does not depend on the choice of fundamental domain $``$, that it is $`𝒢`$-invariant, that $`𝒜()`$ is continuous and the support of $`𝒜(\mu )`$ is the closure of the $`𝒢`$-orbit of the support of $`\mu `$.

###### Lemma 5.1.

$`𝒜(\mu )`$ does not depend on the choice of fundamental domain $``$.

###### Proof.

Let $`_1,_2`$ be two fundamental domains for $`G`$ in $`𝒢`$. Let $`EX`$. Note that $`vol(_1)=vol(_2)`$. The lemma follows from the next calculation.

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol(_1)}}{\displaystyle __1}\mu (gE)𝑑vol(g)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol(_2)}}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{hG}{\displaystyle _{h_2_1}}\mu (gE)𝑑vol(g)`$ (36)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol(_2)}}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{hG}{\displaystyle _{h_2_1}}\mu (hgE)𝑑vol(g)`$ (37)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol(_2)}}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{hG}{\displaystyle _{_2h^1_1}}\mu (gE)𝑑vol(g)`$ (38)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol(_2)}}{\displaystyle __2}\mu (gE)𝑑vol(g).`$ (39)
The second equation holds from the $`G`$-invariance of $`\mu `$.

The next lemma is a more general form of lemma 4.2 in \[Bow\]. The proof is similar.

###### Lemma 5.2.

$`𝒜(\mu )`$ is invariant under all of $`𝒢`$.

###### Proof.

Let $`EX`$ and let $`h𝒢`$. We must show that $`𝒜(\mu )(hE)=𝒜(\mu )(E)`$. We claim that for some $`k`$, there exists elements $`g_iG`$ and Borel subsets $`_i`$ such that

1. $`_ig_i_i=h`$;
2. $`vol(_i_j)=0`$ whenever $`ij`$;
3. $`vol(_i_i)=vol()`$.

Since $``$ is a fundamental domain for the (left) action of $`G`$ on $`𝒢`$ there are elements $`g_iG`$ such that $`h_ig_i`$. We let $`_i=g_i^1[g_ih]`$. By definition then, the first part of the claim is true.

Suppose $`g_i_j`$ for some $`ij`$. Then $`g_ig`$ and $`g_jg`$ are in $`hGg`$. So $`g_igh^1`$ and $`g_jgh^1`$ are in $`Ggh^1`$. Since $`Gg_igh^1=Gg_jgh^1`$ and $``$ is a fundamental domain for $`G`$, we must have that $`g_igh^1`$ and $`g_jgh^1`$ are on the boundary of $``$. Hence $`gg_i^1()h`$. Since $`g`$ is arbitrary, $`_i_jg_i^1()h`$. Since $`vol()=0`$ the second part of the claim follows. The third part of the claim follows directly from the first two parts and the fact that $`vol()`$ is right-invariant as well as left-invariant since $`𝒢`$ is unimodular by hypothesis.

To finish the proof, note

$`𝒜(\mu )(hE)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{}}\mu (ghE)𝑑vol(g)`$ (40)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{_ig_i_ih^1}}\mu (ghE)𝑑vol(g)`$ (41)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle _{g_i_ih^1}}\mu (ghE)𝑑vol(g)`$ (42)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle __i}\mu (g_igE)𝑑vol(g)`$ (43)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle __i}\mu (gE)𝑑vol(g)`$ (44)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{}}\mu (gE)𝑑vol(g)`$ (45)
$`=`$ $`𝒜(\mu )(E).`$ (46)
The fourth equation holds by the change of variables theorem and because $`vol()`$ is right-invariant. The fifth equation holds because $`\mu `$ is invariant under $`G`$. The sixth equation holds because $`_i`$ partitions $``$ (off of a set of measure zero). ∎

The next lemma is clear from the definitions.

###### Lemma 5.3.

The support of $`𝒜(\mu )`$ is the closure of the $`𝒢`$-orbit of $`\mu `$. Therefore if $`X𝒫_r,𝒢=Isom(^n)`$ and every element in the support of $`\mu `$ has a symmetry group of finite index in $`G`$ then every element in the support of $`𝒜(\mu )`$ has a cofinite symmetry group in $`𝒢`$ so $`𝒜(\mu )`$ is periodic.

###### Lemma 5.4.

$`𝒜`$ is continuous as a function from $`M_G`$ (the space of $`G`$-invariant probability measures on $`X`$) to $`M`$ the space of all probability measures on $`X`$. Here both spaces are considered with the weak\* topology.

###### Proof.

Suppose that $`\{\mu _i\}`$ is a sequence of measures in $`M_G`$ that converges to $`\mu M_G`$. Let $`f:X[0,\mathrm{})`$ be a continuous function. We must show that $`𝒜(\mu _i)(f)𝒜(\mu )(f)`$. Since $`X`$ is compact, $`f`$ has a finite upper bound $`M`$ say. Let $`ϵ>0`$. Because $`𝒢`$ is locally compact there is a compact set $`_ϵ`$ such that $`\frac{vol(_ϵ)}{vol()}>1ϵ/M`$. Since $`_ϵ`$ is compact, there is an $`I`$ such that $`i>I`$ implies that $`\left|\mu _i\left(g_{}(f)\right)\mu \left(g_{}(f)\right)\right|<ϵ`$ for all $`g_ϵ`$. We compute

$`\left|𝒜(\mu )\underset{i\mathrm{}}{lim}𝒜(\mu _i)(f)\right|`$ $`=`$ $`|{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{}}\mu (g_{}f)dvol(g)`$ (47)
$``$ $`\underset{i\mathrm{}}{lim}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{}}\mu _i(g_{}f)dvol(g)|`$ (48)
$``$ $`\underset{i\mathrm{}}{lim}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{}}|\mu (g_{}f)\mu _i(g_{}f)|𝑑vol(g)`$ (49)
$``$ $`\underset{i\mathrm{}}{lim}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle __ϵ}|\mu (g_{}f)\mu _i(g_{}f)|𝑑vol(g)+ϵ`$ (50)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle __ϵ}ϵ𝑑vol(g)+ϵ`$ (51)
$``$ $`2ϵ.`$ (52)
Because $`ϵ`$ and $`f`$ are arbitrary, $`𝒜(\mu _i)𝒜(\mu )`$. Since $`\mu _i`$ and $`\mu `$ are arbitrary, the result follows.

## 6 Branched Homotheties

In this section we introduce a tool we call “branched homotheties” and prove theorem 3.4. First, we let $`s,a2`$ be integers such that there exists a regular polygon in $`^2`$ with $`s`$ edges and interior angles equal to $`2\pi /a`$. Let $`𝒯`$ be a regular tiling of the plane by this regular polygon and let $`𝒯_b`$ be the regular tiling of the plane by the polygon that has $`s`$ edges and angles equal to $`\pi /a`$. There is a branched covering map $``$ from the plane to itself which takes $`𝒯_b`$ onto $`𝒯`$ (and is branched over the vertices of $`𝒯`$). To define this map, let $`\tau _1`$ be a tile of $`𝒯_b`$ and let $`\tau _2`$ be a tile of $`𝒯`$ and consider the projective disk model of the hyperbolic plane. We may, after moving $`T_b`$ and $`T`$ by (possibly different) isometries, assume that the centers of $`\tau _1`$ and $`\tau _2`$ are both equal to the origin and that there is a Euclidean similarity that takes $`\tau _1`$ onto $`\tau _2`$. To see that this is possible, recall that geodesics in the projective disk model are Euclidean straight lines so both $`\tau _1`$ and $`\tau _2`$ are regular Euclidean polygons (with the same number of sides). We let $`:\tau _1\tau _2`$ be the Euclidean similarity that maps $`\tau _1`$ onto $`\tau _2`$. Now extend $``$ to all of $`^2`$ be requiring that for any $`\gamma _1`$ in the symmetry group of $`𝒯_b`$, $`(\gamma _1\tau _1)=\gamma _2\tau _2`$ for some $`\gamma _2`$ in the symmetry group of $`𝒯`$. We also require $``$ to be a local homeomorphism away from the vertices of $`T_b`$. These properties uniquely define $``$. The map $``$ will be constructed from the inverse of $``$.

###### Lemma 6.1.

The map $``$ restricted to $`\tau _1`$ (a tile of $`T_b`$) (strictly) decreases distances. Precisely, there exists a constant $`c<1`$ (depending only on $`(s,a)`$) such that for $`p_1,q_1\tau _1`$, $`d((p),(q))cd(p,q)`$.

###### Proof.

The element of arclength in the projective disk model is such that the (hyperbolic) length of a vector $`v`$ based at a point $`x`$ is

$$\frac{[(1|x|^2)|v|^2+<x,v>^2]^{\frac{1}{2}}}{1|x|^2}$$
(53)
where $`|x|,|v|,<x,v>`$ denotes the Euclidean length of $`x`$ and $`v`$ and the Euclidean dot product of $`x`$ and $`v`$ respectively (\[Rat\] theorem 6.1.5). Since $`\tau _1`$ is compact, it suffices to show that for any $`|x|<1,v^2`$ and scalar $`0<k<1`$,

$$\frac{[(1|kx|^2)|kv|^2+<kx,kv>^2]^{\frac{1}{2}}}{1|kx|^2}<\frac{[(1|x|^2)|v|^2+<x,v>^2]^{\frac{1}{2}}}{1|x|^2}.$$
(54)
To this end, we fix $`x`$ (with $`|x|<1`$) and $`v^2,v0`$ and define

$$f(k)=\frac{[(1|kx|^2)|kv|^2+<kx,kv>^2]^{\frac{1}{2}}}{1|kx|^2}.$$
(55)
We need only show that $`f`$ is strictly monotonic increasing when $`1>k>0`$. So we show its first derivative is positive:

$`f^{}(k)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(1|kx|^2)(1/2)(2k|v|^24k^3|x|^2|v|^2+2k<x,v>^2)}{(1|kx|^2)^2((1|kx|^2)|kv|^2+<kx,kv>^2)^{\frac{1}{2}}}}`$ (56)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{((1|kx|^2)|kv|^2+<kx,kv>^2)(2k|x|^2)}{(1|kx|^2)^2((1|kx|^2)|kv|^2+<kx,kv>^2)^{\frac{1}{2}}}}`$ (57)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(1|kx|^2)(k|v|^2+k<x,v>^2)+<kx,kv>^2(2k|x|^2)}{(1|kx|^2)^2((1|kx|^2)|kv|^2+<kx,kv>^2)^{\frac{1}{2}}}}`$ (58)
$`>`$ $`0.`$ (59)
###### Corollary 6.2.

Let $`R=r/c>r`$. Suppose $`(p_1)=p_2`$ and $`(q_1)=q_2`$ ($`p_1`$ and $`q_1`$ are not assumed to be in the same tile of $`T_b`$). Suppose also that $`d(p_2,q_2)2r`$. Then $`d(p_1,q_1)2R`$.

###### Proof.

This is immediate from the above lemma. ∎

Fix a radius $`r`$. For a collection $`P`$ of circles, let $`C(P)`$ denote the set of centers of $`P`$. Conversely, if $`P^{}`$ is a discrete set of points, let $`C^1(P^{})`$ denote the collection of all radius $`r`$ circles with centers in $`P^{}`$. As $``$ is a map from $`^2`$ to $`^2`$, we may also consider it (and its inverse) as a map from discrete points to discrete point sets. So consider the map $`_0:=C^1^1C:𝒫𝒫`$. If $`P𝒫_r`$ then $`^1C(P)`$ is not necessarily the set of centers of a packing in $`𝒫_R`$ for some $`R>r`$. There may be two points $`p,q^1C(P)`$ such that $`d(p,q)<2R`$. By the corollary above, this can only happen when $`(p)=(q)`$. Fixing $`p`$ for the moment, we see that if $`q`$ is such that $`(p)=(q)`$ but $`qp`$, then the closest $`q`$ can be to $`p`$ (without coinciding with $`p`$) is when the tile of $`𝒯_b`$ containing $`q`$ intersects the tile of $`𝒯_b`$ containing $`p`$ in a vertex $`v`$. In this case, the midpoint of the geodesic segment from $`p`$ to $`q`$ is $`v`$ (because $`(p)=(q)`$ and $``$ is branched at $`v`$ with branch index 2). In particular, if $`d(p,q)<2R`$ then $`d(p,v)<R`$. But this implies that $`d((p),(v))<r`$.

To compensate for this we define $`:𝒫𝒫`$ by

$$(P)=C^1(C(P)_{vV(𝒯)}B_r(v)).$$
(60)
In other words, $`(P)`$ is the same as $`P`$ but with all disks whose centers are within a distance $`r`$ from a vertex of $`𝒯`$ erased. Now we have that if $`P𝒫_r`$ then $`^1C((P))`$ is the center set of a packing in $`𝒫_R`$ for some $`R>r`$ (independent of $`P`$).

Clearly $``$ commutes with the symmetry group of $`𝒯`$ and from the definition of $``$, for every element $`g_b`$ in the symmetry group of $`𝒯_b`$ there is an element $`g`$ in the symmetry group of $`𝒯`$ such that $`(g_bp)=g(p)`$ for all points $`p^2`$. These two facts combined implies that the map $`P_0(P)`$ induces a map $`_0_{}:MM(Sym(𝒯_b))`$ where $`M(Sym(𝒯_b))`$ is the space of probability measures on $`𝒫`$ that are invariant under the symmetry group of $`𝒯_b`$. We define the averaging map $`𝒜:M(Sym(𝒯_b))M`$ as in section 5 to get a map $`:M_rM_r`$ defined by

$$(\mu )=𝒜_0_{}(\mu ).$$
(61)
Note that $``$ depends on $`s`$ and $`a`$. When we wish to acknowledge this dependence we will write $`_{s,a}:=`$.

We now turn our attention to showing that given $`\mu M_r`$ and $`s3`$, $`_{s,a}(\mu )`$ converges to $`\mu `$ as $`a\mathrm{}`$. For convenience, we formulate sufficient conditions for convergence in $`M_r`$. For $`\rho ,ϵ>0`$ and $`P𝒫_r`$ we let $`N_ϵ^\rho (P)`$ denote the space of all packings $`Q𝒫_r`$ so that the Haussdorf distance between the center sets of $`P`$ and $`Q`$ restricted to the radius $`\rho `$ ball centered at the origin is less than $`ϵ`$. For a fixed $`P`$, the collection of all neighborhoods $`N_ϵ^\rho (P)`$ forms a basis for the neighborhood topology at $`P`$. We will say that $`\lambda M_r`$ is a $`(\rho ,ϵ)`$-approximation to $`\mu M_r`$ if for every packing $`P𝒫_r`$

$$\left|\lambda \left(N_ϵ^\rho (P)\right)\mu \left(N_ϵ^\rho (P)\right)\right|<ϵ.$$
(62)
It is not hard to show that if $`\lambda _i`$ is a $`(\rho ,ϵ_i)`$-approximation to $`\mu M_r`$ for all $`\rho \rho _i`$ and $`\rho _i\mathrm{}`$ and $`ϵ_i0`$ as $`i\mathrm{}`$ then $`\lambda _i\mu _i`$ in the weak\* topology.

###### Lemma 6.3.

Given $`\mu M_r`$ and $`s3`$, $`_{s,a}(\mu )`$ converges to $`\mu `$ as $`a\mathrm{}`$.

###### Proof.

It suffices to show that for every $`\rho >0,ϵ>0`$ if $`a`$ is large enough then $`_{s,a}(\mu )`$ is a $`(\rho ,ϵ)`$-approximation to $`\mu `$. So let $`(\rho ,ϵ)`$ be given. For $`\delta >0`$ define the function $`f_\delta `$ on $`𝒫_r`$ by

$$f_\delta (P)=\mu \left(N_{ϵ+\delta }^\rho (P)\right)\mu \left(N_{ϵ\delta }^\rho (P)\right).$$
(63)
It is not hard to show that $`f_\delta `$ is continuous on $`𝒫_r`$. Since $`𝒫_r`$ is compact $`\mathrm{max}_Pf_\delta (P)`$ exists and decreases monotonically to zero as $`\delta 0`$. So we choose $`\delta >0`$ so that $`f_\delta <ϵ`$.

Let $`\tau _{s,a}`$ denote the regular polygon in $`^2`$ with $`s`$ sides and angles equal to $`2\pi /a`$. Let $`G_{s,a}`$ be the group of symmetries of a regular tiling by $`\tau _{s,a}`$. Let $`=_{s,a}`$ be a fundamental domain for the left action of $`G_{s,a}`$ on $`Isom^+(^2)`$. We will show that when $`a`$ is sufficiently large, there is a subset $`^{}=_{s,a}^{}_{s,a}`$ such that the volume of $`_{s,a}_{s,a}^{}`$ is less than $`ϵ`$ and for all $`g_{s,a}^{}`$ and $`P𝒫_r`$,

$$gN_{ϵ\delta }^\rho (P)_0\left(gN_ϵ^\rho (P)\right)gN_{ϵ+\delta }^\rho (P).$$
(64)
Given this claim, the lemma follows from the following calculation (we have written $`N_ϵ`$ for $`N_ϵ^\rho `$):

$`\left|\mu \left(N_ϵ(P)\right)(\mu )\left(N_ϵ(P)\right)\right|`$ (65)
$`=`$ $`\left|\mu \left(N_ϵ(P)\right){\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{}}\mu \left(_0\left(gN_ϵ(P)\right)\right)𝑑vol(g)\right|`$ (66)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}|{\displaystyle _{}}\mu \left(gN_ϵ(P)\right)\mu (_0\left(gN_ϵ(P)\right)dvol(g)|`$ (67)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{^{}}}|\mu \left(gN_ϵ(P)\right)\mu (_0\left(gN_ϵ(P)\right)|dvol(g)+1{\displaystyle \frac{vol(^{})}{vol()}}`$ (68)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{^{}}}\mu \left(gN_{ϵ+\delta }(P)\right)\mu \left(gN_{ϵ\delta }(P)\right)\}dvol(g)+{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{vol()}}`$ (69)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{vol()}}{\displaystyle _{^{}}}\mu \left(N_{ϵ+\delta }(P)\right)\mu \left(N_{ϵ\delta }(P)\right)dvol(g)+{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{vol()}}`$ (70)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{vol(^{})f_\delta (P)+ϵ}{vol()}}`$ (71)
$``$ $`ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{vol()ϵ+1}{vol()}}`$ (72)
$``$ $`ϵ\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(s22s/a)\pi }}\right).`$ (73)
Here we have denoted Haar measure on $`Isom^+(^2)`$ by $`vol()`$ and we have normalized it so that the volume of $``$ is equal to the area of a fundamental domain for $`G_{s,a}`$ in $`^2`$ (which we computed to be $`(s22s/a)\pi `$). In equation (68) we used that $`\mu `$ is $`Isom^+(^2)`$-invariant. When $`a`$ is large the last line above is at most $`2ϵ`$ which implies $`_{s,a}(\mu )`$ is an $`(2ϵ,\rho )`$-approximation to $`\mu `$. Since $`ϵ,\rho ,s`$ are arbitrary this implies the lemma.

As before, we will use the projective disk model and assume that the center of $`\tau _{s,a}`$ (and $`\tau _{s,2a}`$) coincides with the origin. We let $`_{s,a}:^2^2`$ be defined by $`_{s,a}(x)=kx`$ where $`0<k<1`$ is a constant (depending on $`s,a`$) chosen so that $`_{s,a}`$ maps $`\tau _{s,2a}`$ onto $`\tau _{s,a}`$. It is clear that as $`a\mathrm{}`$ the $`k`$ in the definition of $`_{s,a}`$ converges to 1. This implies that $`_{s,a}`$ converges to the identity uniformly on compact subsets.

We let $`\rho _{s,a}>0`$ be the smallest radius so that if $`p,q`$ are points in the polygon $`\tau _{s,2a}`$ that are not within $`\rho _{s,a}`$ of a vertex (of $`\tau _{s,a}`$) then

$$d((p),(q))d(p,q)\delta .$$
(74)
Because $`_{s,a}`$ converges to the identity, the area of the $`\rho _{s,a}`$ neighborhood of the vertices of $`\tau _{s,2a}`$ in $`\tau _{s,2a}`$ converges to zero as $`a\mathrm{}`$. In fact the hyperbolic distance from the origin to a vertex of $`\tau _{s,2a}`$ minus $`\rho _{s,a}`$ goes to $`\mathrm{}`$ as $`a\mathrm{}`$. Therefore, for all $`a`$ large enough, the area of the $`\rho _{s,a}+\rho +r`$ neighborhood of the vertices of $`\tau _{s,2a}`$ in $`\tau _{s,2a}`$ is less than $`ϵ`$.

We let $`_{s,a}^{}`$ be the set of all $`g_{s,a}`$ such that $`g𝒪`$ (where $`𝒪`$ is the origin) is not contained in the $`\rho _{s,a}+\rho +r`$ neighborhood of any vertex of the tiling by $`\tau _{s,a}`$. It follows from the above that the volume of $`_{s,a}^{}`$ is at least equal to the volume of $`_{s,a}ϵ`$. Therefore if $`g`$ is in $`_{s,a}^{}`$ then

$$gN_ϵ^\rho (P)=gN_ϵ^\rho (P)$$
(75)
since $`g𝒪`$ is far enough from a vertex that nothing in the $`\rho `$ neighborhood of $`g𝒪`$ is erased by $``$. By the above it also follows that the center sets of $`_0(P)`$ and $`P`$ restricted to the $`\rho `$ neighorhood of $`g𝒪`$ are within a distance $`\delta `$ apart (in the Haussdorf metric). This is because $`g𝒪`$ is far enough away from a vertex (specifically it is at least a distance $`r+\rho _{s,a}`$ away). So,

$$gN_{ϵ\delta }^\rho (P)_0\left(gN_ϵ^\rho (P)\right)gN_{ϵ+\delta }^\rho (P).$$
(76)
This finishes the claim and the lemma. ∎

Theorem 3.4 follows immediately from corollary 6.3 and lemma 6.3.

## 7 Questions

1. Other bodies: Fix a connected compact set $`B`$ equal to the closure of its interior. A $`B`$-packing of $`^n`$ is collection of nonoverlapping congruent copies of $`B`$. As in this paper, we consider isometry-invariant measures on the space of $`B`$-packings. We believe that the main results of this paper (theorem 3.1 and 3.2) hold for $`B`$-packings when $`B`$ is convex with only minor changes in the proofs. However, when $`B`$ is nonconvex the branched homothety maps $`_{s,a}`$ are not well-defined. Indeed, the optimum density function is discontinuous on the space of bodies under the Hausdorff topology (even in Euclidean space). So none of the proofs in this paper can be applied to $`B`$-packings. Is the space of periodic $`B`$-packing measures dense in the space of all isometry-invariant $`B`$-packing measures? In Euclidean space, the answer is yes with essentially the same proof as given in the introduction.
2. Periodic approximation: For what other groups $`F`$ does theorem 3.3 hold? One necessary condition is that the group be residually finite. To see this consider the random coloring $`\varphi :F\{0,1\}`$ such that for each element $`fF`$, $`\varphi (f)`$ is an independent random variable that takes the value $`1`$ with probability 1/2. By definition $`F`$ is not residually finite if and only if the intersection $`L`$ of all finite index subgroups of $`F`$ is not the identity. If this is the case, any periodic measure $`\mu M(F,K)`$ is supported on periodic colorings $`\psi `$ which must be constant on $`L`$. So the distribution of $`\varphi `$ is not in the closure of the periodic measures. It appears that stronger subgroup separability properties may also be necessary. Only recently has it been proven that the fundamental group of the figure eight knot complement is subgroup separable on geometrically finite subgroups (\[ALR\]) so this appears to be a hard but interesting problem.
3. Is $`D^n`$ monotonic? There is a known monotonic increasing upper bound in some dimensions; the density of a radius $`r`$-packing in any Voronoi region is at most equal to the density of the region occupied by the radius $`r`$-balls centered at the vertices a regular simplex with sidelength $`2r`$ in the simplex. This was proven by Fejes Toth \[Fe5\] in dimension 2 and by Karoly Borözcky \[Bo2\] in all dimensions. This bound is known to be monotonic increasing in dimensions 2 (proven by Krammer cited in \[Fe5, section 37\]) and 3 (\[BoF\]) and in all sufficiently large dimensions \[Mar\] (although an explicit lower bound on the dimension has not been provided). In dimension 2, this upper bound is attained for a countable discrete set of radii \[Fe5\]. Precisely, for every $`k7`$ there is a radius $`r_k`$ such that the equilateral triangle of sidelength $`2k`$ has interior angles equal to $`2\pi /k`$. A circle-packing by disks of radius $`r_k`$ exists such that the set of circle centers coincides with the vertices of an regular tesselation by equilateral triangles of sidelength $`2r`$. This packing is periodic and the unique invariant measure supported on its orbit is optimally dense \[BoR1\]. If $`D^2`$ is not monotonic, it would seem likely that some $`r_k`$ is a local maxima.
4. Continuity beyound dimension 2: Is the density function $`D^n`$ continuous when the dimension $`n>2`$? The techniques presented in this paper may generalize to dimension 3 where it is known that there are plenty of complete finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds branch covering other complete finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds. However, when the dimension $`n>3`$ it is not known whether there exists a complete finite volume hyperbolic $`n`$-manifolds that nontrivially branch covers another complete finite volume hyperbolic $`n`$-manifold. Gromov and Thurston (\[GrT\]) provide some evidence that such branched covers may not exist if the branch locus is totally geodesic. In dimension 4, there is a radius $`r_D>0`$ and a radius $`r_D`$-sphere packing $`P`$ that realizes the Boröczky bound given in question 3 (\[Dav\]). It is the packing associated to the 120-cell. If $`D^4`$ is not continuous, a natural place to look for a discontinuity is at $`r_D`$.
5. Continuity at infinity: There is a natural extention of $`D^n`$ to $`[0,\mathrm{}]`$. Here a radius $`0`$-sphere packing of $`^n`$ means a sphere-packing of Euclidean $`n`$-dimensional space by balls of a fixed radius. A radius $`\mathrm{}`$-packing of $`^n`$ is a horoball packing. Greg Kuperberg pointed out to us that $`D^n`$ is continuous at $`0`$ (for any dimension $`n`$). Here is a sketch of the argument: suppose $`P`$ is saturated packing of $`^n`$ by balls of radius $`ϵ`$. Saturated means every point of $`^n`$ is within a distance $`ϵ`$ of some ball of $`P`$. There is a $`k`$-bi-Lipschitz homemorphism between $`^n`$ and a piecewise Euclidean manifold so that each piece of the manifold is mapped onto a Voronoi cell \[CoS\] of $`P`$ (and so that $`k`$ tends to one as $`ϵ`$ tends to zero). Let $`P^{}`$ be a densest sphere packing on the piecewise Euclidean manifold (by balls of a small radius) conditioned on the property that no balls of $`P^{}`$ overlaps the boundary of the pieces. Then the set of sphere centers of $`P^{}`$ can be pushed-forward to a set $`S`$ of sphere centers on $`^n`$. A radius $`ϵ^{}`$ can be chosen so that the collection $`P^{\prime \prime }`$ of balls centered at $`S`$ with radius $`ϵ^{}`$ do not overlap. The process of constructing $`P^{\prime \prime }`$ from $`P`$ can be done in a canonical isometry-invariant way. So an invariant radius $`ϵ`$-sphere packing measure $`\mu `$ pushes forward to an invariant radius $`ϵ^{}`$-sphere packing measure $`\mu ^{}`$. As $`ϵ`$ tends to 0, the density of $`\mu ^{}`$ converges to the maximum density of a Euclidean sphere packing.

Results of Fejes Toth \[Fe5\] imply that the densest horoball packing in dimension 2 is the packing associated to the modular group. This packing can be obtained from a regular tesselation by ideal triangles by placing the centers of the horoballs at the ideal vertices of the triangles in such a way that all three horoballs centered at the vertices of given triangle are mutually tangent. The density of this packing is $`3/\pi `$. Because $`D^2(r_k)`$ (see question 3 for definition of $`r_k`$) converges to $`3/\pi `$ as the $`k`$ tends to infinity it follows that $`D^2`$ is continuous at infinity as well. If $`n>2`$ is $`D^n`$ continuous at infinity? Of course, continuity at infinity is the same as left-continuity at infinity. Lemma 3.6 proves left-continuity at all finite values in all dimensions but the argument does not extend to horoball packings.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank my advisor, Charles Radin for first suggesting this problem and for many helpful conversations. I would also like to thank Oded Schramm for suggesting the approach to density through invariant distributions without which this work could not have gotten started.

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lbowen@math.ucdavis.edu