Seminars & Colloquia Calendar
Computer-assisted explorations and proofs in the moving sofa problem
Dan Romik, UC Davis
Location: Hill 705
Date & time: Thursday, 12 April 2018 at 5:00PM - 5:48PM
Abstract: The moving sofa problem is a well-known open problem in geometry. It asks for the planar shape of largest area that can be moved around a right-angled corner in a two-dimensional hallway of width 1. In this talk I will survey the known results about the problem, which has a surprisingly rich structure, and explain several ways in which its study is informed by experimental mathematics. In particular, I will discuss recent results derived in joint work with Yoav Kallus, in which we developed and implemented an algorithm to prove new upper bounds for the area of a moving sofa shape, improving a 1968 result by Hammersley.
