Triangular minimality for planar Coulomb renormalized energy

We prove the Sandier–Serfaty conjecture: the triangular lattice of covolume one minimizes planar Coulomb renormalized energy over all admissible curl-free fields with a unit uniform background. Combined with Bétermin and Sandier's asymptotic formula, this also proves the Brauchart–Hardin–Saff conjecture for the linear term of optimal ordered-pair logarithmic energy on the unit two-sphere. The proof uses a direct Voronoi-cell comparison with rigorous interval arithmetic.