On finding widest empty curved corridors (Q2385694)

The widest \(\alpha\)-siphon problem is solved. The widest \(\alpha\)-siphon is defined as the locus of points in the plane that are placed at the largest distance from a 1-corner polygonal chain. The 1-corner polygonal chain consists of two half-lines emanating form the corner and forming the angle \(\alpha\), \(0\leq\alpha\leq\pi\). The boundaries of the \(\alpha\)-siphon are formed by two half-lines or by a circular arc joining two half-lines. No points lie in the interior of the \(\alpha\)-siphon. Therefore, the \(\alpha\)-siphon splits the set of points in two non-trivial partitions. In the article, three variants of the widest \(\alpha\)-siphon problem are studied: 1) the widest oriented \(\alpha\)-siphon (the angle \(\alpha\) and the orientation of one of the half-lines are given), 2) the widest arbitrarily-oriented \(\alpha\)-siphon (the angle \(\alpha\) is given), 3) the widest anchored and arbitrarily-oriented \(\alpha\)-siphon (corner of polygonal chain is anchored at a given point).