English

Solution of the propeller conjecture in $\mathbb{R}^3$

Computational Complexity 2014-04-08 v2 Functional Analysis Metric Geometry

Abstract

It is shown that every measurable partition A1,...,Ak{A_1,..., A_k} of R3\mathbb{R}^3 satisfies i=1kAixe12x22dx229π2.()\sum_{i=1}^k||\int_{A_i} xe^{-\frac12||x||_2^2}dx||_2^2\le 9\pi^2.\qquad(*) Let P1,P2,P3{P_1,P_2,P_3} be the partition of R2\mathbb{R}^2 into 120120^\circ sectors centered at the origin. The bound is sharp, with equality holding if Ai=Pi×RA_i=P_i\times \mathbb{R} for i1,2,3i\in {1,2,3} and Ai=A_i=\emptyset for i{4,...,k}i\in \{4,...,k\} (up to measure zero corrections, orthogonal transformations and renumbering of the sets {A1,...,Ak}\{A_1,...,A_k\}). This settles positively the 3-dimensional Propeller Conjecture of Khot and Naor (FOCS 2008). The proof of reduces the problem to a finite set of numerical inequalities which are then verified with full rigor in a computer-assisted fashion. The main consequence (and motivation) of ()(*) is complexity-theoretic: the Unique Games hardness threshold of the Kernel Clustering problem with 4×44 \times 4 centered and spherical hypothesis matrix equals 2π3\frac{2\pi}{3}.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1112.2993,
  title  = {Solution of the propeller conjecture in $\mathbb{R}^3$},
  author = {Steven Heilman and Aukosh Jagannath and Assaf Naor},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1112.2993},
  year   = {2014}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:50:44.382Z