Mathematician Claims Breakthrough in Decades-Old Moving Sofa Problem

Jineon Baek's new proof refines the maximum area of a shape that can navigate a right-angled corner, pending peer review.

The moving sofa problem, posed in 1966, seeks to determine the largest 2D shape that can navigate a 1-unit-wide, right-angled hallway corner.
Jineon Baek, a postdoctoral researcher at Yonsei University, has proposed a solution, calculating the maximum area to be 2.2195 units.
Baek's proof builds on the 1992 work of Joseph Gerver, confirming the optimality of his U-shaped sofa design with 18 curves.
The research, published on the preprint server arXiv, has yet to undergo peer review but has drawn significant attention from the mathematical community.
If verified, Baek's findings could conclusively solve this long-standing mathematical puzzle after nearly six decades of inquiry.