Circle covering with a margin (Q1375064)

The authors investigate very interesting continuous transition from the simple covering to the 2-fold covering of the plane with equal circles. A covering of the plane with unit circles has margin \(\mu\) (\(0 \leq \mu \leq 1\)) if any circle can be replaced by a concentric circle of radius \(1-\mu\) and the plane still remains covered. In the paper, the minimum possible density among all lattice coverings with margin \(\mu\) is determined. (The classical cases \(\mu=0\) (simple covering) and \(\mu=1\) (2-fold covering) were solved by Kershner (1939) and Blundon (1957).) The optimal lattice is equilateral triangular for \(0 \leq \mu \leq \mu_1\), square for \(\mu_1 \leq \mu \leq \mu_2\) and the Blundon 2-fold covering for \(\mu_2 \leq \mu \leq 1\), where \(\mu_1=0.56408 \ldots \) and \(\mu_2=0.78408 \ldots \). The problem for finding the best nonlattice covering with margin \(\mu\) remains open.