Meylender–Thalmaier optimal-cover conjecture for truncated squares

Let QQ be a pentagon obtained from a square by truncating one of its corners, and let K0K_0 be the trapezoid determined by the placement of the four QQ-normal triangles described in the source. For a convex shape KK, define the systolic ratio by

c(K×Q)22area(K)area(Q).\frac{c(K\times Q)^2}{2\operatorname{area}(K)\operatorname{area}(Q)}.

Meylender–Thalmaier conjecture. The systolic ratio is strictly less than 11 for every convex shape KK, and it is maximized with respect to KK if and only if KK is a translate of K0K_0 or K0-K_0. This conjecture is based on computational experiments for pentagons obtained by truncating a corner of a square. The source presents it as an unresolved conjecture about the optimal shape of QQ-covers.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Alexey Balitskiy, Ivan Mitrofanov and Alexander Polyanskii, “Triangle covering problems and the Viterbo inequality in the plane”, arXiv:2603.12495 (2026).

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