Eisenstein circle packings and the Eisenpint Schmidt arrangement

Abstract

The Schmidt arrangement of an imaginary quadratic number field $K$ is the orbit of the extended real line under $\text{PSL}(2, \mathcal{O}_K)$ as Möbius transformations on the extended complex plane. If $K\neq\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-3})$, then the resulting set of circles can only intersect tangentially, leading to various classes of integral circle packings, including Apollonian circle packings. When $K=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-3})$, circles can intersect at angles of $\fracπ{3}$ and $\frac{2π}{3}$, making it unclear how to extract circle packings from the arrangement. The goal of this paper is to study a modification of the $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-3})-$Schmidt arrangement called the "Eisenpint Schmidt arrangement" and associated integral "Eisenstein circle packings". In analogy to the study of Apollonian circle packings, we study the number theory of such packings, including associated families of quadratic forms, show the Eisenpint Schmidt arrangement is formed of exactly all primitive Eisenstein circle packings, show strong approximation and classify congruence obstructions, prove a density-one local-global statement, and find quadratic -- but alas no cubic -- reciprocity obstructions. Unexpected aspects of the Eisenstein case include the role of congruence subgroups, the bipartite nature of the packings and reciprocity obstructions, the coefficients of quadratic obstructions, an abundance of extra symmetry, and the need to use "first-odd" quadratic forms.