On the relative distances of nine or ten points in the boundary of a plane convex body (Q765373)

Given a planar convex body \(C\), the relative distance of two points \(a, b\) in C is the ratio of their Euclidean distance to half of the Euclidean distance of the points \(a_1, b_1\) in \(C\) with the property that \(a_1b_1\) is the longest chord of \(C\) parallel to the segment \(ab\). Denote by \(\phi_k (C)\) the greatest possible number \(d\) such that \(k\) points on the boundary of \(C\) are pairwise at relative distance, at least, \(d\). Furthermore, \(\phi_k (\mathcal{C})\) is the supremum of \(\phi_k (C)\) after all convex planar bodies \(C\). The numbers \(\phi_k (\mathcal{C})\) are known up to, and including, \(k=8\) due to various works, while \(\phi_9 (\mathcal{C})\) and \(\phi_{10} (\mathcal{C})\) were the object of a conjecture. The authors disprove the conjecture for \(\phi_{10} (\mathcal{C})\) by showing that \(\phi_{10} (\mathcal{C})>2/3\), and they also improve on the lower bound for \(\phi_{9} (\mathcal{C})\) (to \(\sqrt{3}-1\)) for which the conjecture has been shown to fail, earlier in a joint paper of the first author with a different collaborator. The proofs are constructive.