Covering a square with six circles by deterministic global optimization
Sonia Cafieri, Pierre Hansen, Frédéric Messine · AIP conference proceedings · 2019
We consider the problem of covering a square with exactly 6 identical circles of minimal radius. In the literature, a covering is presented by Melissen and Schuur, and conjectured to be optimal. We adress the problem proposing a mathematical programming formulation and solving it to global optimality. We prove that the conjectured optimal covering is indeed the global optimum.