Spherical $t$-Designs on $\mathbb S^2$ with $54t^2$ Points

Source abstract

We prove that, for every integer $t\geq 1$, the unit two-sphere admits a spherical $t$-design consisting of exactly $54t^2$ points. More generally, such a design exists with exactly $6q^2$ points for every integer $q\geq 3t$. The proof builds on the topological degree method of Bondarenko, Radchenko and Viazovska, using an explicit equal-area partition of the sphere based on the map of Roşca and Plonka. By choosing the cell centers to minimize the average squared geodesic distance and deriving sharper sampling estimates, we obtain the stated quadratic bound on the size of spherical $t$-designs on $\Sph$.