Optimal nestings of all regular polygons

Starting from an equilateral triangle, place every other regular polygon once outside it, or independently once inside it, and optimize each containment over rotations and translations. We determine the infimum over all exhaustive orders. No ordinary permutation attains it: every optimal adjacency graph begins with the entire doubling ray 3, 6, 12, and so on. The infimum is attained by a countable linear order whose infinite blocks meet at limiting circles. Two exceptional blocks contain the square and the powers of two; all other blocks are given by an explicit matching of dyadic rays along powers of three. A summable arithmetic dual proves global optimality, and equality determines the unique unoriented adjacency graph. The infinite inequalities are analytic, with directed interval certificates for their finite remainder. In the normalization where the triangle has circumradius one, the optimal outer and inner circle radii are 2.3123644734... and 0.2162288885.... We compare these values with the Kepler-Bouwkamp construction and two direct adjacent-order models, and prove that the triangle is the unique best central side count for the two-sided radius ratio. License scope: original scholarly text, figures, and project-generated mathematical data are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Identified original software is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. The included file-scope maps and third-party notices specify exceptions; historical input archives retain their existing terms.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-10-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23824543
Primary Topic
Mathematics and Applications
Type
preprint
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
preprint

Optimal nestings of all regular polygons

Barry Z. Cynamon
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Mathematics and Applications
preprint

Optimal nestings of all regular polygons

Barry Z. Cynamon
preprint en

Abstract

Starting from an equilateral triangle, place every other regular polygon once outside it, or independently once inside it, and optimize each containment over rotations and translations. We determine the infimum over all exhaustive orders. No ordinary permutation attains it: every optimal adjacency graph begins with the entire doubling ray 3, 6, 12, and so on. The infimum is attained by a countable linear order whose infinite blocks meet at limiting circles. Two exceptional blocks contain the square and the powers of two; all other blocks are given by an explicit matching of dyadic rays along powers of three. A summable arithmetic dual proves global optimality, and equality determines the unique unoriented adjacency graph. The infinite inequalities are analytic, with directed interval certificates for their finite remainder. In the normalization where the triangle has circumradius one, the optimal outer and inner circle radii are 2.3123644734... and 0.2162288885.... We compare these values with the Kepler-Bouwkamp construction and two direct adjacent-order models, and prove that the triangle is the unique best central side count for the two-sided radius ratio. License scope: original scholarly text, figures, and project-generated mathematical data are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Identified original software is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. The included file-scope maps and third-party notices specify exceptions; historical input archives retain their existing terms.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Washington University in St. Louis (US)
Mathematics and Applications
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.

Laika access coming soon