T-128: Eight complete rational refinements from Couzo

V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174 and T-197

2026-10-08 published · Couzo after Xu, Chaoweeraprasit, Gupta, Ellsworth, Daniel, Levy · 8 cases, n=105 to 306

Eight complete rational source certificates by Couzo, reported on jlevy/squares#451, prove finite upper bounds at the exact sides they state: s(105)≤10.790618268107144505815379335866, s(108)≤10.904821012320356429055628704222, s(127)≤11.810878787589179839642367108002, s(131)≤11.951105389414677460694240669403, s(155)≤12.95249894401400738196585056694, s(180)≤13.916993522477832483558124720393, s(228)≤15.604601475729674284720634102188 and s(306)≤17.963433717491425739593840075522.

Each certificate gives a rational side and, for each unit square, a rational centre and the tangent of its half-angle, in Daniel's format. The source reports passes from a copy of this repository's sqpack verifier in exact rational arithmetic.

All 24 retained jobs, the eight positives with their duplicate-square and outside-container controls, were decided again here on 10 October 2026 by both maintained exact routes and equal their retained rows, and a third exact route, half-extent containment and exact intersection area, decided the eight certificates with six controls each. One maintained route is the verifier the source ran; the independent rational corner checker and the third route are independently re-implemented. The 10 October review found no blocking defect.

On 11 October 2026 the case records adopted five of them as the house, at 108, 127, 180, 228 and 306. At 105, 131 and 155 smaller certificates hold the case (T-130, T-136, T-149), and these three stay verified and are not selected.

Credit Couzo (https://github.com/franciscouzo/square-packing), refining Xu's packings at 105, 108, 127 and 131, Chaoweeraprasit's SQUISH packings at 155 and 180 (180 through Gupta) and his own at 228 and 306, with Ellsworth's refine_packing, his basin hopping and Daniel's fq; Daniel's exact contact solver wrote every certificate.

Significance, composition and next rung
Significance
Eight smaller finite construction sides at n=105, 108, 127, 131, 155, 180, 228 and 306, 9.79e-07 to 6.60e-04 below the case ceilings, each an earlier packing refined to a new optimum by basin hopping and refine_packing; no lower bound or optimum.
Next rung
V4 and C4 need a retained human oversight record: two accepted adversarial reviews by distinct AI reviewers are retained, the 10 October review and the 11 October final review (docs/project/reviews/review-2026-10-11-final-upper-bounds.md).
Novelty
previously-published Present in an identified source

The cases

This result concerns 8 cases, too many to draw one by one. Each is listed with the film’s bounds, the proved lower bound and the best known side, and links to its case record, where its packing and number line are drawn.

nProved lowerBest knownGapStatusRecords
10510.28000010.7893040.50930378…open=frontier n-105.md
10810.62000010.9048220.28482101…frontier n-108.md
12711.28192911.8108790.52894946…frontier n-127.md
13111.46585611.9496600.48380348…frontier n-131.md
15512.46870912.9522610.48355174…frontier n-155.md
18013.43251713.9169940.48447636…frontier n-180.md
22815.10308115.6046020.50151960…frontier n-228.md
30617.50735117.9634340.45608236…frontier n-306.md

Results on these cases

27 results in the register on these cases, oldest first
  1. 2005 published T-007 · 8 of these cases

    s(n)≥min(⌈n⌉,n−2⌊n⌋+1+1) for 4≤n≤324

    Lower bound incomplete on these cases, superseded by T-073, T-080, T-083, T-180 (reported) and T-216

    Nagamochi · Nagamochi 2005 · source · register

  2. 2026-09-04 published T-085 · 8 of these cases

    Nagamochi 2005, Lemma 1 is false for every container with a>3 and b>2

    Correction confirmed

    Karakuş; Vlasenko · Karakuş 2026 · chelokot Nagamochi counterexample 2026 · packet · register

  3. 2026-09-27 published T-056 · 6 of these cases

    Smaller packings for 49 counts from n=68 to 307, each certified two independent ways

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174 and T-197

    Couzo · franciscouzo square-packing 2026-09-27 · packet · register

  4. 2026-09-29 published T-083 · 8 of these cases

    s(n)≥1/2+n−⌊n⌋+1/4 for every nonsquare 8≤n≤324

    Lower bound confirmed

    Karakuş · Karakuş 2026 · source · register

  5. 2026-10-02 published T-073 · case 105

    Linear-measure lower bounds replayed at n=83 and n=101…105

    Lower bound confirmed

    Hosono after Tokoharu, Levy, Stromquist, Nagamochi, Burns, Massaccesi · wand125 linear certificates 2026-10-02 · packet · source · review · register

  6. 2026-10-02 published T-080 · case 105

    Linear-measure lower bound replayed at n=101…105

    Lower bound confirmed

    Hosono after Tokoharu, Levy, Stromquist, Nagamochi, Burns, Massaccesi · wand125 linear certificates 2026-10-02 · packet · source · review · register

  7. 2026-10-03 published T-092 · cases 228, 306

    Smaller packings again at seven counts from n=208 to 306, each certified two independent ways

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174

    Couzo · franciscouzo square-packing 2026-10-03 · packet · register

  8. 2026-10-05 published T-098 · 5 of these cases

    Exact optima of 48 known-best packings: s(n) ≤ S', 3.5e-13 to 5.0e-11 below each printed side

    Upper bound confirmed on these cases, superseded by T-174 and T-197

    Daniel after Couzo, de Winter, Ellsworth, Levy · evand exact optima 2026-10-05 · packet · register

  9. 2026-10-05 published T-101 · cases 108, 127

    Exact certificates of 77 catalogue packings: s(n) ≤ S', 1.2e-16 to 9.8e-15 above each side

    Upper bound confirmed on these cases, superseded by T-174

    Daniel after Couzo, de Winter, Ellsworth, Levy · evand exact optima 2026-10-05 · packet · register

  10. 2026-10-07 published T-113 · cases 108, 155, 180

    s(n)≤Sn at ten counts, n=108 to 303, from new SQUISH rational packings

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174 and T-197

    Chaoweeraprasit after Ellsworth · SQUISH ten packings 2026-10-07 · packet · register

  11. 2026-10-07 published T-115 · case 155

    s(n)≤Sn at twelve counts, from the SQUISH update’s new and smaller rational packings

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-197

    Chaoweeraprasit after Couzo and Ellsworth · SQUISH update 2026-10-07 · packet · register

  12. 2026-10-07 published T-116 · cases 108, 180

    s(n)≤Sn at nine counts, from the second SQUISH update’s new rational packings

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174

    Chaoweeraprasit after Ellsworth, Couzo and SQUISH · SQUISH second update 2026-10-07 · packet · register

  13. 2026-10-07 published T-117 · case 105

    Exact rational ceiling refinements at n=105, 292

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174

    Rehwaldt after Couzo and earlier contributors · Rehwaldt Couzo refinements 2026-10-07 · packet · register

  14. 2026-10-07 published T-129 · case 105

    Three dated Daniel certificate reports with historical source custody

    Upper bound recorded superseded by T-174

    Daniel after Couzo, Levy · Daniel dated certificates 105 and 130 2026-10-07 · Daniel dated certificate 292 2026-10-07 · packet · packet · packet · register

  15. 2026-10-08 published T-125 · cases 105, 108, 127, 131

    Complete rational construction reports at 25 counts

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174

    Xu · ry-xu square packing 2026 · packet · register

  16. 2026-10-08 published T-127 · cases 108, 180

    Fourteen rational refinements, seventeen complete source cases

    Upper bound confirmed on these cases, superseded by T-174

    Gupta after Chaoweeraprasit, Daniel · Gupta rational refinements 2026-10-08 · packet · register

  17. 2026-10-08 published T-128 this result · 8 of these cases

    Eight complete rational refinements from Couzo

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174 and T-197

    Couzo after Xu, Chaoweeraprasit, Gupta, Ellsworth, Daniel, Levy · Couzo exact refinements 2026-10-08 · packet · register

  18. 2026-10-08 published T-130 · case 105

    Five follow-up rational refinements from Couzo

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174

    Couzo after Xu, Daniel, Ellsworth, Levy · Couzo follow-up refinements 2026-10-08 · packet · register

  19. 2026-10-09 published T-136 · case 131

    Seventeen exact rational packings from SQUISH's third request

    Upper bound confirmed on these cases, superseded by T-174

    Chaoweeraprasit after Couzo, Xu, Göbel, Schadt, Ellsworth, Hajba, Levy · SQUISH third request 2026-10-09 · packet · register

  20. 2026-10-09 published T-138 · 6 of these cases

    Exact witnesses at Mishapolk's printed ceilings, the smallest known at 103 and 258 when registered

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174

    Polkovskyi after Stenlund, Friedman, Ellsworth, Chaoweeraprasit, Couzo, Xu, Levy · Mishapolk decimal poses 2026-10-09 · packet · register

  21. 2026-10-11 published T-149 · case 155

    New packings of 155, 156 and 211 squares, each with an exact rational certificate

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-197

    Ostashev after Nakajima, Levy, Xu · Ostashev records 2026-10-11 · packet · register

  22. 2026-10-12 published T-170 · case 105

    An exact contact refinement of Xu's packing of 105 squares, after Couzo's

    Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-174

    PingYou Ltd after Xu, Couzo, Daniel, Levy · PingYou n105 refinement 2026-10-12 · packet · register

  23. 2026-10-13 published T-174 · 8 of these cases

    Tighter certificates at 68 counts from PingYou Ltd, of others' packings and its own

    Upper bound confirmed

    PingYou Ltd after Friedman, Ellsworth, Daniel, Xu, Barnett, Couzo, Ostashev, Chaoweeraprasit, Gupta, Fang, Polkovskyi, Levy · PingYou PR 574 certificates 2026-10-13 · packet · register

  24. 2026-10-13 published T-180 · 8 of these cases

    Closed-form lower bound s(N)≥a(N) for every non-square N≥49, reported

    Lower bound reviewed

    Hosono · wand125 closed form 2026-10-14 · packet · packet · register

  25. 2026-10-16 published T-216 · case 108

    Mixed rectangle-measure lower bound s(108)≥531/50 verified, on the 201-direction net

    Lower bound confirmed

    Hosono after Tokoharu and Levy · wand125 fine-net lower bounds 2026-10-16 · packet · source · review · register

  26. 2026-10-17 published T-197 · case 155

    Daniel's smaller n155 packing, started from Ostashev's packing

    Upper bound confirmed

    Daniel after Ostashev, Levy · Daniel n155 explorer 2026-10-17 · packet · register

  27. 2026-10-22 published T-229 · case 105

    Polkovskyi's re-solves of the house packings at 105 and 204, below T-174 and T-225

    Upper bound recorded

    Polkovskyi after Couzo, Muglich, Daniel, Xu, PingYou Ltd, Levy · Mishapolk issue 719 2026-10-22 · packet · register