English

From discrete to dense: explorations in the moduli space of triangles

Metric Geometry 2026-04-02 v1 Probability

Abstract

The moduli space of triangles is a two-dimensional space that records triangle shapes in the plane, considered up to similarity. We study the subset corresponding to \textit{lattice triangles}, which are triangles whose vertices have integer coordinates. We prove that this subset is \textit{dense}, that is, every triangle shape can be approximated arbitrarily well by lattice triangles. However, when one restricts to lattice triangles in the square [N,N]2[-N,N]^2, their shapes do \textit{not} become uniformly distributed in the moduli space as NN grows. Along the way, we encounter connections with geometry, number theory, analysis, and probability.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.00373,
  title  = {From discrete to dense: explorations in the moduli space of triangles},
  author = {Aahana Aggarwal and Subhojoy Gupta and Ajay K. Nair},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.00373},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication by Math. Magazine. This work was done as part of the RSI-India program for high-school students in June-July 2025