Five-neighbour packings of centrally symmetric convex discs

Abstract

In an old paper of the author the thinnest five-neighbour packing of translates of a convex disc (different from a parallelogram) was determined. The minimal density was $3/7$, and was attained for a certain packing of triangles. In that paper it was announced that for centrally symmetric convex plates (different from a parallelogram) the analogous minimal density was $9/14$, and was attained for a certain packing of affine regular hexagons, and a very sketchy idea of the proof was given. In this paper we give details of this proof.