Tomaszewski's problem on randomly signed sums: breaking the 3/8 barrier (Q2401426)

Summary: Let \(v_1, v_2, \ldots, v_n\) be real numbers whose squares add up to 1. Consider the \(2^n\) signed sums of the form \(S = \sum \pm v_i\). The second author and \textit{D. J. Kleitman} [Combinatorica 12, No. 3, 303--316 (1992; Zbl 0759.60008)] proved that at least \(\frac{3}{8}\) of these sums satisfy \(| S| \leq 1\). This \(\frac{3}{8}\) bound seems to be the best their method can achieve. Using a different method, we improve the bound to \(\frac{13}{32}\), thus breaking the \(\frac{3}{8}\) barrier.