English

On the paucity of lattice triangles

Dynamical Systems 2026-03-26 v1 Combinatorics Number Theory

Abstract

A rational triangle TT (one whose angles are rational multiples of π\pi) unfolds to a translation surface (XT,ωT)(X_T,\omega_T). The lattice triangle problem asks to classify those TT for which (XT,ωT)(X_T,\omega_T) is a Veech (lattice) surface, which means that the SL2(R)\operatorname{SL}_2(\mathbb R)-orbit of (XT,ωT)(X_T,\omega_T) is closed in its stratum (so its projection to moduli space is a Teichm\"uller curve). The most mysterious regime is the "hard obtuse window" (largest angle in (π/2,2π/3](\pi/2,2\pi/3]), where it is conjectured that no lattice triangles exist. Using an arithmetic reformulation of the Mirzakhani-Wright rank obstruction, we prove a quantitative theorem that rules out all but a density 0 subset of the triangles in this window. The main engine in this paper was autoformalized by AxiomProver in Lean (using mathlib).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.23928,
  title  = {On the paucity of lattice triangles},
  author = {David Kurniadi Angdinata and Evan Chen and Ken Ono and Jiaxin Zhang and Jujian Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.23928},
  year   = {2026}
}