A short open space curve of unit width

Abstract

In this work, we propose a curve to be a minimum of length among rectifiable, continuous curves of unit width in three-dimensional Euclidean space. We show that a previously conjectured minimizer of that problem is not of unit width, give the numerical derivation of a candidate family of unit width curves, prove that it admits a strict local minimum within that candidate family and that this minimum is of unit width and length $3.905124162243593\ldots$. The curve consists of eight straight segments, two cone geodesics, and three circular helices. Its parameters are specified by a uniquely isolated solution of the joining and stationarity equations. To establish unit width in every direction, we combine analytic estimates with interval arithmetic on a finite covering of the remaining directions. We conjecture that the curve is globally minimizing. We supplement this work with the programs used to identify the candidates, replicate the computer-assisted parts of our proof, as well as a formalization of our proof in Lean.