T-255: Couzo's certificates of ntumlnoob's Kaggle packings at 260 and 307, below T-225 and T-174

V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-256 and T-257

2026-10-28 published · Couzo after ntumlnoob, Daniel, Levy · n=260,307

Two complete rational source certificates report finite upper-bound improvements at the exact sides they state: s(260)≤67077942617632138527571542307/4031481829251000000000000000 and s(307)≤436081607184993722962197444889181982917255228924685874736959955436771335630565667211324538123/24254714520872479530466069702814569144398684321103594602674239356738890164429000000000000000. At 260 it is 7.22e-3 below the case's house best packing (T-225), and at 307 1.61e-3 below it (T-174).

The two certificates and their duplicate-square and outside-container controls were decided here on 31 October 2026 by both maintained exact routes. Those routes share components with the producer: the sqpack route decides through sqpack/verify.py, the checker the source's manifest names first, and both read the certificates through the evand-cert reader. The 31 October review decided them again on a clean-room checker of its own, by separating axes and by exact clipped areas with ten controls each, by a Claude agent, a system family the producer also used, and found no blocking defect, so the bounds are confirmed, independently re-implemented. Both are recorded only: issue 844's certificates are lower at both counts (T-256), and issue 845's at 260 (T-257).

The commit message says both certificates are replayed on both of the source's exact routes. It and the credit records certificates/n260.json and n307.json say neither packing is the author's construction: both refine the packings ntumlnoob published in the Kaggle notebook 'First 22.268681355 Public Code With Explanation' (run 362957087, sides 16.638533455862 and 17.979253973651 by its metric), and the gains, 6.6e-7 and 2.7e-6, come from the web app's fq, an adaptation of Daniel's fq optimizer (MIT). The commit ends with a Co-Authored-By trailer naming Claude. Those statements are the author's; no source program ran here.

Credit ntumlnoob (Kaggle) for both packings, from the notebook 'First 22.268681355 Public Code With Explanation', whose own refinements of an unpublished parent they are, and Couzo (https://github.com/franciscouzo/square-packing) for the refinements and the certificates, as the source credits them. A publication in a watched repository that no issue reports, recorded from its commit by the owner's rule of 14 October 2026; issue 844 reports lower certificates at both counts the same day.

Significance, composition and next rung
Significance
Other arrangements than the houses at 260 and 307, 7.22e-03 and 1.61e-03 below T-225 and T-174, with 168 and 91 squares beyond a tenth, as #763's notebook-descended arrangements (S3) are; the arrangements are ntumlnoob's and the refinements the author's. No lower bound or optimum.
Next rung
None for the bound. V4 and C4 need a second accepted adversarial review by a distinct reviewer and a retained human oversight record; one AI review, of 31 October, is retained. Neither count is adopted from this entry: at both counts issue 844's certificates are lower (T-256), and at 260 issue 845's (T-257), and the house rule adopts the smallest validated side.
Novelty
previously-published Present in an identified source

The cases

Case record
Regularized by the Squares Project with Daniel's regularizer (evand/square-packing, MIT)
As published
The packing as published, in its source’s pose, Daniel 2026 [Daniel issue 845 2026-10-29]

n=260

16.1216.634
161718
16.12517.125
nn+1

Proven

16.12849≤s(260)≤16.633983

  • exact

Citation record n-260

lowerKarakuş 2026, arXiv corrects Nagamochi 2005 (confirmed T-083)

upperDaniel 2026, GitHub (confirmed T-257)

Open

  • optimality

The case record

Case record
Regularized by the Squares Project with its own axis tool (regularize_axis_components/2)
As published
The packing as published, in its source’s pose, ntumlnoob 2026 [Couzo issue 844 2026-10-28]

n=307

17.5317.979
171819
17.52118.521
nn+1

Proven

17.53672≤s(307)≤17.979252

  • exact

Citation record n-307

lowerKarakuş 2026, arXiv corrects Nagamochi 2005 (confirmed T-083)

upperntumlnoob & Couzo, GitHub (confirmed T-256)

Open

  • optimality

The case record

LowerUpper
Gap0.44252624…

Results on these cases

19 results in the register on n=260,307, oldest first, each with what it established and how it stands now.

  1. 2005 published T-007 · n=260,307

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

    V0 C1 Lower bound incomplete on these cases, superseded by T-083 and T-180 (reported)

    Nagamochi · Nagamochi 2005 · source · register

  2. 2026-09-04 published T-085 · n=260,307

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

    V3 C3 Correction confirmed

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

  3. 2026-09-27 published T-056 · n=307

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

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-256

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

  4. 2026-09-29 published T-083 · n=260,307

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

    V3 C3 Lower bound confirmed

    Karakuş · Karakuş 2026 · source · register

  5. 2026-10-05 published T-098 · n=307

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

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed on these cases, superseded by T-256

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

  6. 2026-10-05 published T-101 · n=260

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

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed on these cases, superseded by T-257

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

  7. 2026-10-09 published T-136 · n=307

    Seventeen exact rational packings from SQUISH's third request

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-256

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

  8. 2026-10-12 established T-155 · n=260

    Exact regularized sides at 59 counts, 5.4e-20 to 9.9e-15 below the ceilings they replace

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed on these cases, superseded by T-257

    Levy after Daniel · register

  9. 2026-10-12 published T-163 · n=307

    s(n² − n + 1) < n for every n ≥ 15, and n² − n + F(n) squares below side n, from Fang

    V3 C1 Upper bound reviewed superseded by T-256

    Fang after Arslanov, Mustafin, Shangitbayev, Ellsworth, Stead, de Winter, Daniel, Couzo · Fang excess theorem 2026-10-13 · packet · packet · packet · source 1 · source 2 · register

  10. 2026-10-12 published T-261 · n=260

    Reported grade-C local minima for 233 source configurations of field degree at most 4

    V3 C1 Restricted optimality incomplete

    Daniel after Schadt, Ellsworth, Levy · Daniel exact and local reports 2026-10-12 · packet · packet · register

  11. 2026-10-13 published T-174 · n=307

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

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed on these cases, superseded by T-256

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

  12. 2026-10-13 published T-180 · n=260,307

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

    V0 C1 Lower bound reviewed

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

  13. 2026-10-17 published T-196 · n=260

    de Winter reports three smaller rational upper bounds at 227, 229 and 260

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-257

    de Winter after Levy · de Winter upper bounds 2026-10-17 · packet · register

  14. 2026-10-18 published T-223 · n=260

    Couzo's smaller packings at 204 and 260, the two in the corpus of issue 678's 85 bounds

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-257

    Couzo after de Winter, Polkovskyi, Ostashev, Daniel, Fang, PingYou Ltd, Levy · Couzo issue 678 2026-10-18 · packet · register

  15. 2026-10-18 published T-236 · n=307

    Daniel reports Lean proofs of Fang's Theorems 1 and 2, s(n2−n+1)<n for n≥15

    V0 C0 Formalization recorded

    Daniel after Fang, Arslanov, Mustafin, Shangitbayev, Levy · Daniel Fang and Ryu Lean 2026-10-18 · packet · source · register

  16. 2026-10-20 published T-225 · n=260

    Daniel's solved, regularized views at 204, 227, 229 and 260, each the smallest side reported there

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed on these cases, superseded by T-257

    Daniel after Couzo, de Winter, Polkovskyi, Ostashev, PingYou Ltd, Levy · Daniel regularized lists 2026-10-20 · packet · register

  17. 2026-10-28 published T-255 this result · n=260,307

    Couzo's certificates of ntumlnoob's Kaggle packings at 260 and 307, below T-225 and T-174

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed superseded by T-256 and T-257

    Couzo after ntumlnoob, Daniel, Levy · Couzo a5a5d76 2026-10-28 · packet · packet · register

  18. 2026-10-28 published T-256 · n=260,307

    Couzo's packings from Kaggle notebook packings at 232, 260 and 307, below T-186, T-225 and T-174

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed

    Couzo after Chilton, ntumlnoob, Lavrentev, Ellsworth, Daniel, Levy · Couzo issue 844 2026-10-28 · packet · register

  19. 2026-10-29 published T-257 · n=260

    Daniel's new packings of 172, 204, 260 and 293 squares, 1.64e-4 to 1.18e-2 below each house

    V3 C3 Upper bound confirmed

    Daniel after Chaoweeraprasit, Gupta, Ostashev, kirilltym, Friedman · Daniel issue 845 2026-10-29 · packet · register