A lower bound on opaque sets (Q2330035)

An opaque set for \(U\subset \mathbb{R}^2\) is a set \(B\subset\mathbb{R}^2\) that intersects every line that intersects \(U\). Obviously, the boundary of a convex set \(U\) is an opaque set for \(U\), but the goal is to find small or short opaque sets. An opaque set is rectifiable if it is the union of some countable set of curves, each of them with finite length, and such that the sum of all the lengths (called as the length of the opaque set) is finite. The paper includes a proof of the following known property: every rectifiable opaque set for a convex set \(U\) has length at least half the perimeter of \(U\). The authors prove that the length of a rectifiable opaque set for the unit square is at least \(2+2\cdot 10^{-5}\). They extend the above result in the following sense: if \(U\) is a closed convex set with perimeter \(2p\) that is not a triangle, there is \(\delta>0\) (which depends on \(U\)) such that every rectifiable opaque set for \(U\) has length at least \(p+\delta\). There are some pictures in the paper that help the reader.