ABSTRACT
Metallic properties are often ascribed to the existence of metallic bonding due to delocalized electrons. As a consequence it may be expected that the structures of metal clusters are dictated rst of all by packing effects, and that low-symmetry, less dense structures are less relevant. The only way the (delocalized) electrons inuence the structure is by being responsible for the occurrence of particularly stable cluster sizes (i.e., the so-called magic numbers) through the closing of the electronic shells.
