Exact Area-Range Minima in the Quantitative Monsky Problem for Five and Seven Triangles

Source abstract

For a dissection $D$ of the unit square into $n$ nondegenerate triangles, let $R(D)=\max_i a_i-\min_i a_i, Δ(n)=\inf_D R(D).$ We prove that this infimum is attained for every $n\ge2$, and determine the exact minima for $n=5$ and $n=7$, allowing T-junctions. For five triangles, $Δ(5)=\frac{5\sqrt5-11}{8};$ equality holds precisely when three areas equal $(3-\sqrt5)/4$ and two equal $(3\sqrt5-5)/8$. For seven triangles, $Δ(7)=r_7$, where $r_7$ is the unique root in $(0,1/4900)$ of $864r^4+2160r^3-6060r^2+4972r-1.$ Every minimizer has four areas $(1+3r_7)/7$ and three areas $(1-4r_7)/7$, although its geometry need not be unique. The proofs combine finite combinatorial classification with exact symbolic and integer-interval certificates. For nine triangles, a tilted-strip construction gives the explicit algebraic upper bound $Δ(9)\le 0.0001273496861283553341\ldots,$ which is the exact minimum within that topology. Conversely, every dissection in the complete single-cap two-rail zig-zag family, with arbitrary continuous areas, has range greater than $1/3500$; hence a global minimizer must lie outside that family. The exact value of $Δ(9)$ remains open.