The ring Lemma in three dimensions (Q540483)

Let \(\mathcal {B}\) be a collection of \(n\) cyclically tangent planar discs with pairwise disjoint interiors. Assume that discs from \(\mathcal {B}\) are externally tangent to the unit disc and surround it. Denote the radius of the smallest disc in \(\mathcal {B}\) by \(r=r(n, {\mathcal {B}})\). The ring lemma states that \(r\) is bounded below by a positive constant independent of \(\mathcal {B}\), while the sharp ring lemma provides the sharp lower bound for \(r\) in terms of \(n\). In the present paper the author provides an extension of the ring lemma to the three-dimensional case.