Compactness theorems for geometric packings

Abstract: Moser asked whether the collection of rectangles of dimensions 1 x 1/2, 1/2 x 1/3, 1/3 x 1/4, ..., whose total area equals 1, can be packed into the unit square without overlap, and whether the collection of squares of side lengths 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, ... can be packed without overlap into a rectangle of area pi^2/6-1. Computational investigations have been made into packing these collections into squares of side length 1+epsilon and rectangles of area pi^2/6-1+epsilon, respectively, and one can consider the apparently weaker question whether such packings are possible for every positive number epsilon. In this paper we establish a general theorem on sequences of geometrical packings that implies in particular that the ``for every epsilon versions of these two problems are actually equivalent to the original tiling problems.

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Let \(C\) be a closed subset of \({\mathbb R}^n\) and let \({\mathcal A}\) be any collection of subsets of \({\mathbb R}^n\). Define the topological space \({\mathcal M}({\mathbb R}^n)\) to be the product space \((O(n) \times {\mathbb R}^n)^{\infty}\), where \(O(n)\) denotes the \(n\)-dimensional orthogonal group. The space \({\mathcal M}({\mathbb R}^n)\) parameterizes all possible positionings of the collection \({\mathcal A}\) in \({\mathbb R}^n\). Denote by \({\mathcal P}({\mathcal A},C)\) the set of all packings of \({\mathcal A}\) into \(C\). The author proves that \({\mathcal P}({\mathcal A},C)\) is a closed subset of \({\mathcal M}({\mathbb R}^n)\). This fact yields compactness statements for packings. For example, if for any \(\epsilon>0\) there exists a packing of \({\mathcal A}\) into the homothet \((1+\epsilon)C\), then there exists a packing of \({\mathcal A}\) into \(C\) itself.

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