Schwarz's lemma for circle packings (Q1096738)

Let \(HCP_ n\) be N-generations of the regular hexagonal circle packing, and let \(HCP_ N'\) be a circle packing that is combinatorially isomorphic to \(HCP_ N\). Assume that D is the smallest disk containing \(HCP_ N\), and that \(HCP_ N'\) is contained in D. The author here proves the following analog of the classical lemma of Schwarz: There is an absolute constant c such that for any \(N=1,2,..\). and any packing \(HCP_ N'\) which is combinatorially equivalent to N generations of the regular hexagonal circle packing one has \[ R_ 0\leq c/6N(r_ 1+r_ 2+...+r_{6N}) \] where \(R_ 0\) is the radius of the generation zero circle of \(HCP_ N'\) and \(r_ 1,...,r_{6N}\) are the radii of the generation N circles of \(HCP_ N'\). The result is used to obtain other interesting related results in this paper.