Kneser–Poulsen Conjecture

OPENLandmarkConjectureProposed 1954–1955 · Standard version

Canonical statement

Let d,N1d,N\geq1, r>0r>0, and p1,,pN,q1,,qNRdp_1,\ldots,p_N,q_1,\ldots,q_N\in\mathbb R^d satisfy
qiqj2pipj2for all i,j. \lVert q_i-q_j\rVert_2\leq\lVert p_i-p_j\rVert_2 \quad\text{for all }i,j.
Writing B(x,r)B(x,r) for the closed Euclidean ball and vold\operatorname{vol}_d for dd-dimensional Lebesgue measure, one has
vold ⁣(i=1NB(qi,r))vold ⁣(i=1NB(pi,r)) \operatorname{vol}_d\!\left(\bigcup_{i=1}^N B(q_i,r)\right) \leq \operatorname{vol}_d\!\left(\bigcup_{i=1}^N B(p_i,r)\right)
and
vold ⁣(i=1NB(qi,r))vold ⁣(i=1NB(pi,r)). \operatorname{vol}_d\!\left(\bigcap_{i=1}^N B(q_i,r)\right) \geq \operatorname{vol}_d\!\left(\bigcap_{i=1}^N B(p_i,r)\right).
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Let \(d,N\geq1\), \(r>0\), and
\(p_1,\ldots,p_N,q_1,\ldots,q_N\in\mathbb R^d\) satisfy
\[
  \lVert q_i-q_j\rVert_2\leq\lVert p_i-p_j\rVert_2
  \quad\text{for all }i,j.
\]
Writing \(B(x,r)\) for the closed Euclidean ball and
\(\operatorname{vol}_d\) for \(d\)-dimensional Lebesgue measure, one has
\[
  \operatorname{vol}_d\!\left(\bigcup_{i=1}^N B(q_i,r)\right)
  \leq
  \operatorname{vol}_d\!\left(\bigcup_{i=1}^N B(p_i,r)\right)
\]
and
\[
  \operatorname{vol}_d\!\left(\bigcap_{i=1}^N B(q_i,r)\right)
  \geq
  \operatorname{vol}_d\!\left(\bigcap_{i=1}^N B(p_i,r)\right).
\]
Both inequalities are known in the plane and for continuous contractions and other special cases. For arbitrary finite contractions in dimensions d3d\geq3, the full assertion remains open.
The date range spans Poulsen's 1954 problem and Kneser's 1955 formulation; this record fixes the equal-radius union-and-intersection version.

The boxed statement is the canonical open formulation — not a stronger variant or a related research program. The status reflects the catalog's last review; do your own literature search before investing serious effort.