Packing of ellipses with continuously distributed area

Combinatorial aspects of packing and covering (05B40) Inequalities and extremum problems involving convexity in convex geometry (52A40) Packing and covering in (n) dimensions (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C17)

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Let N ellipses of given areas \(x_ 1,...,x_ N\) be packed in a convex hexagon of area A, and let \(d=(x_ 1+...+x_ N)/A\) be the density of the packing. The author establishes a new upper bound for d. Let f(p) be the area of a regular p-gon circumscribed about a circle of unit area. The elements of the sequence \((z_ i)\) with \(z_ i=(f(i)-f(i+1))^{- 1},\) for \(i=3,4,..\). partition the set of positive real numbers into interval \(I_ i=(z_{i-1},z_ i)\). It is proved that \[ d \leq \sum_{i\geq 3}X_ i/\sum_{i\geq 3}f(i)X_ i, \] where \(X_ i=\sum_{\lambda x_ j\in I_ i}x_ j\) and \(\lambda\) denotes a suitable factor of normalization. The method, although essentially simple, is very efficient, as demonstrated by two examples. The extension of this result to the case of packing of ellipses with continuously distributed areas deserves even more interest. It leads to an upper bound for the density of a packing of ellipses in terms of a prescribed distribution function. This yields, among other results, an elegant proof of the well-known fact that circles of not too different sizes cannot be packed with greater density than congruent circles.

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