I have checked that all published record solutions show the discussed 3-fold rotational symmetry, potentially with one or two additional points on the rotation axis (cube diagonal). At least the top-ranked 6 participants all have used the C3 symmetry to find their best solutions.
In AZ's Yahoo Forum it was mentioned that all good solutions tend to have a "coconut structure".
The radial structure can be perhaps be seen best, if the solution points are rotated around the symmetry axis into a plane containing this axis.
A collection of the corresponding plots can be found at
Points rotated into a plane containing the symmetry axisVisualizing such things needs some trial and error. 3D animation sometimes helps, see
Tim Foden's Winning Result for N=97 in Al Zimmermann's Non-Coplanar Points Programming ContestMore interesting than the radial distribution seems the arrangement of the point in the outermost planar "shells". Both Tim Foden's 97_188 and Moritz Franckenstein's 97_179 solution have the surface of the cube and 3 layers below populated by the maximum possible number of 3 points per face, i.e. the layers 48, 47, 46, and 45 (distance from cube center) all contain 18 points. Of course this could have be used to construct good starting solutions.
I am extremely curious to see counterexamples where a non-symmetric solution beats the best symmetric solution.
At the moment we (Moritz Franckenstein and myself) are trying to create a list of optimum number of points in small cubes. So far we have (examples)
N Points
2 [ 5]: (0,0,1),(0,1,0),(0,1,1),(1,0,0),(1,1,1)
3 [ 8]: (0,0,2),(0,1,1),(0,2,1),(1,0,0),(1,0,1),(1,1,2),(2,1,2),(2,2,0)
4 [10]: (0,2,2),(0,3,3),(1,0,3),(1,1,0),(1,2,0),(2,0,0),(2,2,3),(2,3,2),(3,0,1),(3,3,2)
5 [13]: (0,0,2),(0,1,1),(0,4,3),(1,1,3),(1,3,4),(1,4,1),(2,3,0),(3,0,3),(3,0,4),(3,4,2),(4,1,0),(4,2,4),(4,3,0)
6 [15]: (2,0,2),(0,2,2),(2,2,0),(1,5,2),(5,2,1),(2,1,5),(5,0,1),(0,1,5),(1,5,0),(3,0,4),(0,4,3),(4,3,0),(1,3,5),(3,5,1),(5,1,3)
7 [18]: (0,2,2),(0,5,3),(1,2,4),(1,4,6),(1,6,5),(2,0,2),(2,2,0),(2,4,1),(3,0,5),(3,6,4),(4,1,2),(4,3,6),(4,6,1),(5,1,6),(5,3,0),(6,1,4),(6,4,3),(6,5,1)
8 [20]: (2,1,2),(1,2,2),(2,2,1),(0,5,6),(5,6,0),(6,0,5),(3,0,5),(0,5,3),(5,3,0),(5,1,7),(1,7,5),(7,5,1),(2,0,7),(0,7,2),(7,2,0),(3,7,6),(7,6,3),(6,3,7),(6,6,6),(4,4,4)
9 [23]: (6,4,1),(4,1,6),(1,6,4),(4,5,8),(5,8,4),(8,4,5),(3,7,0),(7,0,3),(0,3,7),(1,1,3),(1,3,1),(3,1,1),(5,0,3),(0,3,5),(3,5,0),(6,2,8),(2,8,6),(8,6,2),(7,6,5),(6,5,7),(5,7,6),(8,8,8),(7,7,7)
10 [26]: (5,8,4),(8,4,5),(4,5,8),(2,9,7),(9,7,2),(7,2,9),(0,8,2),(8,2,0),(2,0,8),(1,3,4),(3,4,1),(4,1,3),(0,6,5),(6,5,0),(5,0,6),(9,1,2),(1,2,9),(2,9,1),(9,6,4),(6,4,9),(4,9,6),(0,5,1),(5,1,0),(1,0,5),(8,8,8),(7,7,7)
11 [28]: (0,4,9),(0,7,2),(0,7,8),(1,1,1),(1,7,9),(1,10,3),(2,0,7),(2,5,3),(3,1,10),(3,2,5),(3,9,8),(4,9,0),(4,10,5),(5,3,2),(5,4,10),(6,8,10),(7,2,0),(7,8,0),(7,9,1),(8,0,7),(8,3,9),(8,10,6),(9,0,4),(9,1,7),(9,8,3),(10,3,1),(10,5,4),(10,6,8)
12 [30]: (8,0,2),(0,2,8),(2,8,0),(0,9,4),(9,4,0),(4,0,9),(0,10,11),(10,11,0),(11,0,10),(1,5,2),(5,2,1),(2,1,5),(1,7,6),(7,6,1),(6,1,7),(1,10,8),(10,8,1),(8,1,10),(3,5,10),(5,10,3),(10,3,5),(4,11,5),(11,5,4),(5,4,11),(4,11,7),(11,7,4),(7,4,11),(7,9,9),(9,9,7),(9,7,9)
13 [32] (0,0,1),(0,2,5),(0,3,8),(1,9,4),(1,10,10),(2,2,8),(2,10,11),(2,11,10),(3,1,0),(3,4,11),(3,6,3),(4,10,2),(4,12,3),(5,7,7),(6,3,9),(7,0,4),(7,5,5),(7,12,2),(8,3,1),(8,5,0),(8,11,9),(9,1,4),(9,8,12),(9,9,6),(10,5,12),(10,8,10),(11,0,9),(11,4,3),(11,12,0),(12,1,12),(12,4,5),(12,9,1)
14 [>=35] search still in progress
15 [>=36] search still in progress
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Hugo Pfoertner