Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2003
A strip of radius $r$ in the hyperbolic plane is the set of points within distance $r$ of a given geodesic. Wedefine the density of a packing of strips of radius $r$ and prove that this density cannot exceed
$$ \mathcal{S}(r)=\frac{3}{\pi}\sinh r\mathrm{arccosh}\biggl(1+\frac{1}{2\sinh^2r}\biggr). $$
This bound is sharp for every value of $r$ and provides sharp bounds on collaring theorems for simple geodesics onsurfaces.
AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 51M09; 52C15. Secondary 51M04