On the covering multiplicity of lattices

Let the lattice Λ have covering radiusR, so that closed balls of radiusR around the lattice points just cover the space. The covering multiplicityCM(Λ) is the maximal number of times the interiors of these balls overlap. We show that the least possible covering multiplicity for ann-dimensional lattice isn ifn≤8, and conjecture that it exceedsn in all other cases. We determine the covering multiplicity of the Leech lattice and of the latticesI _n, A_n, D_n, E_n and their duals for small values ofn. Although it appears thatCM(I _n)=2 ⁿ⁻¹ ifn≤33, asn → ∞ we haveCM(I _n)∼2.089... ⁿ . The results have application to numerical integration.