The double-bubble problem on the square lattice

Abstract

We investigate the minimal-perimeter configurations of two finite sets of points on the square lattice. This corresponds to a lattice version of the classical double-bubble problem. We give a detailed description of the fine geometry of minimisers, and, in some parameter regime, we compute the optimal perimeter as a function of the size of the point sets. Moreover, we provide a sharp bound on the difference between two minimisers, which are generally not unique, and use it to rigorously identify their Wulff shape as the size of the point sets scales up.