Overview
- After seven years of work, Baek Jin Eon posted a detailed proof in late 2024 asserting that no larger shape than Gerver’s can navigate a unit-width right-angle turn.
- The submission is under review at the Annals of Mathematics, and mathematicians are evaluating the arguments as formal vetting proceeds.
- Scientific American listed Baek’s research among its Top 10 mathematical breakthroughs of 2025, spotlighting the non-computational approach.
- The moving sofa problem, posed in 1966, seeks the two-dimensional shape of maximum area that can be carried through an L-shaped corridor of fixed width.
- Baek, 31, is a research fellow at KIAS’s June E Huh Center and emphasizes systematic logical analysis over large-scale simulations.