English

On asymptotic Lebesgue's universal covering problem

Metric Geometry 2025-12-04 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

Universal cover in En\mathbb{E}^{n} is a measurable set that contains a congruent copy of any set of diameter 1. Lebesgue's universal covering problem, posed in 1914, asks for the convex set of smallest area that serves as a universal cover in the plane (n=2n=2). A simple universal cover in En\mathbb{E}^n is provided by the classical theorem of Jung, which states that any set of diameter 1 in an nn-dimensional Euclidean space is contained in a ball JnJ_n of radius n2n+2\sqrt{\tfrac{n}{2n+2}}; in other words, JnJ_n is a universal cover in En\mathbb{E}^n. We show that in high dimensions, Jung's ball JnJ_n is asymptotically optimal with respect to the volume, namely, for any universal cover UEnU \subset \mathbb{E}^n, Vol(U)(1o(1))nVol(Jn). {\rm Vol}(U) \ge (1-o(1))^n{\rm Vol}(J_n).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.04023,
  title  = {On asymptotic Lebesgue's universal covering problem},
  author = {Andrii Arman and Andriy Bondarenko and Andriy Prymak and Danylo Radchenko},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.04023},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:08:07.611Z