English

Covering the Plane by a Sequence of Circular Disks with a Constraint

Metric Geometry 2020-06-19 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

We are interested in the following problem of covering the plane by a sequence of congruent circular disks with a constraint on the distance between consecutive disks. Let (Dn)nN(\mathcal{D}_n)_{n \in \mathbb N} be a sequence of closed unit circular disks such that nNDn=R2\cup_{n \in \mathbb{N}} \mathcal{D}_n = \mathbb {R}^2 with the condition that for n2n \ge 2, the center of the disk Dn\mathcal{D}_n lies in Dn1\mathcal{D}_{n-1}. What is a "most economical" or an optimal way of placing Dn\mathcal{D}_n for all nNn \in \mathbb{N}? We answer this question in the case where no "sharp" turn is allowed, i.e. if CnC_n is the center of the disk Dn\mathcal{D}_n, then for all n2n \ge 2, % Cn1CnCn+1\angle C_{n-1}C_nC_{n+1} is not very small. We also consider a related problem. We wish to find out an optimal way to cover the plane with unit circular disks with the constraint that each disk contains the centers of at least two other disks. We find out the answer in the case when the centers of the disks form a two-dimensional lattice.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1810.01255,
  title  = {Covering the Plane by a Sequence of Circular Disks with a Constraint},
  author = {Amitava Bhattacharya and Anupam Mondal},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.01255},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

21 pages, 12 figures