On Steiner ratio conjectures (Q1179751)

A metric space \(M\) is considered. If \(P\) is a finite set of points of \(M\), then the Steiner minimal tree \(SMT(P)\) of \(P\) is the shortest connected network in \(M\) which contains all points of \(P\). The vertices of \(SMT(P)\) are points of \(P\) (regular points) and possibly also other points of \(M\) (Steiner points). The minimal spanning tree \(MST(P)\) of \(P\) is the shortest tree in \(M\) whose vertices are exactly all vertices of \(P\). Let \(L_ s(P)\) be the length (sum of lengths of edges) of \(SMT(P)\), let \(L_ m(P)\) be the length of \(MST(P)\). The Steiner ratio of \(M\) is \(\rho(M)=\inf\{L_ s(P)/L_ m(P)\mid P\subset M\}\). In the paper some results concerning the Euclidean plane are proved. The main result determines a lower bound for \(\rho(R_ n)\), where \(R_ n\) is the \(n\)-dimensional Euclidean space.