A counterexample to Nagamochi's scoring lemma and a new rectangle packing bound

Abstract

Let $s(N)$ denote the smallest side length of a square containing $N$ unit squares with arbitrary orientations and pairwise disjoint interiors. Nagamochi's Packing Unit Squares in a Rectangle (2005) states a rectangle packing bound from which he deduces two infinite families of exact values: $s(k^2-1) = k$ and $s(k^2-2) = k$ for every integer $k \geq 2$. We construct a family of counterexamples, local to a corner of the container, to the scoring assertion in Nagamochi's Lemma 1. These counterexamples show that the published proof of the rectangle bound is incomplete, but do not disprove the bound itself. We then give an independent proof of a weaker rectangle bound using a strip measure. This recovers $s(k^2-1) = k$ for every integer $k \geq 2$ and yields an explicit lower bound for $s(N)$ that improves strictly on the area bound for every nonsquare integer $N \geq 8$. Our argument does not establish Nagamochi's full rectangle bound or the identity $s(k^2-2) = k$.