The symmetric three-curve area inequality

Let L>0L>0, and let CylL\mathtt{Cyl}_L be the cylinder obtained from R2\mathbb{R}^2 by identifying points differing by (L,0)(L,0), with standard curve Graph0,L\mathtt{Graph}_{0,L}. Let γ1,γ2,γ3 ⁣:R/LZCylL\gamma_1,\gamma_2,\gamma_3\colon\mathbb{R}/L\mathbb{Z}\to\mathtt{Cyl}_L be simple closed polygonal paths homologous to Graph0,L\mathtt{Graph}_{0,L}. Assume there do not exist x,y1,y2,y3Rx,y_1,y_2,y_3\in\mathbb{R} such that (x,yi)γi(R/LZ)(x,y_i)\in\gamma_i(\mathbb{R}/L\mathbb{Z}) for all ii and y1+y2+y3=0y_1+y_2+y_3=0.

Symmetric area inequality conjecture. One has

γ1+γ2+γ3ydx0.\int_{\gamma_1+\gamma_2+\gamma_3}y\,dx\ne0.

This is the one-dimensional symmetric reformulation of the special case of the area inequality with one curve equal to Graph0,L\mathtt{Graph}_{0,L}. It is related to a combinatorial problem on non-crossing sums and remains open in the paper.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Terence Tao, “An integration approach to the Toeplitz square peg problem”, arXiv:1611.07441 (2017).

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