Related papers: The opaque square

The problem of finding "small" sets that meet every straight-line which intersects a given convex region was initiated by Mazurkiewicz in 1916. We call such a set an {\em opaque set} or a {\em barrier} for that region. We consider the…

An opaque set (or a barrier) for $U \subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$ is a set $B$ of finite-length curves such that any line intersecting $U$ also intersects $B$. In this paper, we consider the lower bound for the shortest barrier when $U$ is the…

It is proved that the total length of any set of countably many rectifiable curves, whose union meets all straight lines that intersect the unit square U, is at least 2.00002. This is the first improvement on the lower bound of 2…

Explicit lower bounds for the length of the shortest opaque set for the unit disc and the unit square in the Euclidean plane are derived. The results are based on an explicit application of the general method of Kawamura, Moriyama, Otachi…

Let $K$ be a convex body (a non-empty compact convex set) in $n$-dimensional Euclidean space. A set $B$ is called a barrier (or an `opaque set') for $K$ if every line that intersects $K$, also intersects $B$. Although this concept was…

Let $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ be a bounded, convex set. A set $O \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ is an opaque set (for $\Omega$) if every line that intersects $\Omega$ also intersects $O$. What is the minimal possible length $L$ of an opaque set?…

We improve a lower bound for the smallest area of convex covers for closed unit curves from 0.0975 to 0.1, which makes it substantially closer to the current best upper bound 0.11023. We did this by considering the minimal area of convex…

The problem widely known as Moser's Square Packing Problem asks for the smallest area $A$ such that for any set $S$ of squares of total area $1$, there exists a rectangle $R$ of area $A$ into which the squares in $S$ permit an…

A square is a word of the form $xx$ for a non-empty word $x$. Brlek and Li [Comb. Theory, 2025] proved that the number of distinct squares in a word $w$ of length $n$ is at most $n - \sigma$, where $\sigma$ is the number of letters used in…

In 1967, Moon and Moser proved a tight bound on the critical density of squares in squares: any set of squares with a total area of at most 1/2 can be packed into a unit square, which is tight. The proof requires full knowledge of the set,…

A covering problem posed by Henri Lebesgue in 1914 seeks to find the convex shape of smallest area that contains a subset congruent to any point set of unit diameter in the Euclidean plane. Methods used previously to construct such a…

Tarski's Circle Squaring Problem from 1925 asks whether it is possible to partition a disk in the plane into finitely many pieces and reassemble them via isometries to yield a partition of a square of the same area. It was finally resolved…

We show that in Euclidean 3-space any closed curve which lies outside the unit sphere and contains the sphere within its convex hull has length at least $4\pi$. Equality holds only when the curve is composed of $4$ semicircles of length…

In this work, we carry out structural and algorithmic studies of a problem of barrier forming: selecting theminimum number of straight line segments (barriers) that separate several sets of mutually disjoint objects in the plane. The…

Given a set $P$ of points and a set $U$ of axis-parallel unit squares in the Euclidean plane, a minimum ply cover of $P$ with $U$ is a subset of $U$ that covers $P$ and minimizes the number of squares that share a common intersection,…

The Opaque Cover Problem (OCP), also known as the Beam Detector Problem, is the problem of finding, for a set S in Euclidean space, the minimum-length set F which intersects every straight line passing through S. In spite of its simplicity,…

Pseudoline arrangements are fundamental objects in discrete and computational geometry, and different works have tackled the problem of improving the known bounds on the number of simple arrangements of $n$ pseudolines over the past…

The smallest enclosing circle problem asks for the circle of smallest radius enclosing a given set of finite points on the plane. This problem was introduced in the 19th century by Sylvester [17]. After more than a century, the problem…

The Heilbronn triangle problem asks for the placement of $n$ points in a unit square that maximizes the smallest area of a triangle formed by any three of those points. In $1972$, Schmidt considered a natural generalization of this problem.…

We consider the problem of packing a large square with nonoverlapping unit squares. Let $W(x)$ be the minimum wasted area when a large square of side length $x$ is packed with unit squares. In Roth and Vaughan's paper that proves the lower…