Covering the plane with two kinds of circles (Q1892421)

The density of a packing in the plane with \(n\) kinds of circles is known to be at most \(1 - (1 - \pi/ \sqrt {12})^n\). A (general) lower bound for the density of a covering of the plane with \(n\) kinds of circles is still unknown. The author gives such a sharp lower bound \(d_2\) for the case \(n = 2\): Let \(d\) be the density of a regular hexagonal arrangement of congruent circles in the Euclidean plane. \(\sigma (d)\) denote the quotient of the area of the portion of one hexagon left uncovered and the area of the hexagon. Then holds \(d_2 = \min (d + 2 \pi \sigma (d)/ \sqrt {27}) = 1.01895 \ldots\) where \(0 \leq d \leq 2 \pi/ \sqrt {27}\). This improves a result given by \textit{A. Florian} [Rend. Semin. Mat. Univ. Padova 31, 77- 86 (1961; Zbl 0121.391)] if the ratio of both circle areas is greater than 26.1.