Formalizing the Classical Isoperimetric Inequality in the Two-Dimensional Case
Abstract
We present a formal verification of the classical isoperimetric inequality in the plane using the Lean 4 proof assistant and its mathematical library Mathlib. We follow Adolf Hurwitz's analytic approach to establish the inequality , which states that among all simple closed curves of a given perimeter , the circle uniquely maximizes the enclosed area . The formalization proceeds in two phases. In the first phase, we establish the Fourier-analytic foundations required by Hurwitz's approach: we formalize orthogonality relations for trigonometric functions over , Parseval's theorem for classical Fourier series, uniform convergence of Fourier partial sums via the Weierstrass M-test, term-by-term differentiability, and Wirtinger's inequality. In the second phase, we carry out Hurwitz's proof itself: working with simple closed curves given in arc-length parametrization, we reparametrize over , establish the shoelace area formula, apply integration by parts, invoke the AM--GM inequality, apply Wirtinger's inequality, and use the arc-length constraint to derive the bound . We discuss the key formalization challenges encountered, including the interchange of infinite sums and integrals, term-by-term differentiation, and the coordination of different indexing conventions within Mathlib. The complete formalization is available at https://github.com/mirajcs/IsoperimetricInequality
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.14663,
title = {Formalizing the Classical Isoperimetric Inequality in the Two-Dimensional Case},
author = {Miraj Samarakkody},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.14663},
year = {2026}
}