Balanced Support Calibrations for Moser's Worm Problem: Exact Certificate and Bound of Triangular Cover
Zhipeng Deng
math.MG
Sep 4, 2026 · v1
TL;DR
A Lean appendix verifies the exact radical comparison underlying the marked-Z algebraic branch value.
Abstract
Moser's worm problem asks for a planar region of minimum area containing a congruent copy of every rectifiable planar arc of length one. We study the Bellman's lost-in-a-forest problem escape path for the isosceles triangle \[ T=\text{conv}\{(-c,0),(c,0),(0,s)\},\qquad s=\frac{766}{\sqrt{625565}},\qquad c=\frac{197}{\sqrt{625565}}. \] The paper gives an exact positive four-source support calibration, a continuum to standard-polygonal reduction, a selected $Λ$-gap estimate, a corrected high-angle side-meeting argument, and exact finite ledgers. The original inner-anchor ledger covers 25 temporal orders: its 275 nonzero suffix states reduce to 13 exact squared norms and satisfy $\|R\|<27131/25000$. If either near anchor fails, a new delimiter-gap lemma produces one or two omitted hull edges whose normals range over an exact compact fan interval. A dependency-free rational replay checks 512 one-delimiter orders over 1540 signed half-angle intervals and 4096 two-delimiter orders over a finite signed rectangle cover. These three exhaustive branches give unconditionally \[ E(T)\ge D:=\frac{82074390584}{84861020075} =0.9671624323094728\ldots \] Hence, the convex universal cover of Moser's worm \[ \frac{\text{area}(T)}{D^2} =\frac{11511821678274125}{44639604443512928} =0.257883595112076188\ldots. \]
Problem
Moser's worm problem seeks the smallest-area planar region containing a congruent copy of every unit-length rectifiable arc. The paper studies the escape-path (Bellman lost-in-a-forest) lower bound for a specific isosceles triangle to certify a universal cover upper bound.
Approach
An exact positive four-source support calibration and a continuum-to-polygonal reduction are combined with delimiter-gap lemmas and exact finite ledgers. Multiple exhaustive branches over signed half-angle intervals and rectangle covers are checked by dependency-free rational replay. A Lean appendix verifies a specific radical inequality for the marked-Z branch value.
Results
Unconditionally E(T) >= 82074390584/84861020075 ≈ 0.96716, yielding a convex universal cover of area(T)/D^2 = 11511821678274125/44639604443512928 ≈ 0.257884.