English

A genus-zero surface with bounded curvature enclosing less volume than the unit sphere

Differential Geometry 2025-12-23 v1

Abstract

We produce a family of bodies in R3\mathbb R^3 parameterized by ε>0\varepsilon > 0, each bounded by a smooth topological sphere with principal curvatures in [1,1][-1, 1], and having volume arbitrarily close to 1643+(10314)π(1033)π23.70. 16 - 4\sqrt 3 + \left(10 \sqrt 3 - 14\right) \pi - \left(\frac{10}{3} - \sqrt 3\right) \pi^2 \approx 3.70. Thus, in contrast to the two-dimensional case, the unit sphere (which bounds a ball of volume 43π4.19\frac{4 }{ 3} \pi \approx 4.19) does not enclose the minimal volume among all smooth spheres in R3\mathbb R^3 with principal curvatures in [1,1][-1,1]. This answers a folklore question of Dmitri Burago and Anton Petrunin.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.19659,
  title  = {A genus-zero surface with bounded curvature enclosing less volume than the unit sphere},
  author = {Matthew Bolan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.19659},
  year   = {2025}
}