Computational Geometry

Chan [JACM, 2010] gave a data structure for maintaining the convex hull of a dynamic set of 3D points under insertions and deletions, supporting extreme-point queries. Subsequent refinements by Kaplan, Mulzer, Roditty, Seiferth, and Sharir…

A Euclidean noncrossing Steiner $(1+\epsilon)$-spanner for a point set $P\subset\mathbb{R}^2$ is a planar straight-line graph that, for any two points $a, b \in P$, contains a path whose length is at most $1+\epsilon$ times the Euclidean…

Lipschitz decomposition is a useful tool in the design of efficient algorithms involving metric spaces. While many bounds are known for different families of finite metrics, the optimal parameters for $n$-point subsets of $\ell_p$, for $p >…

$\newcommand{\eps}{\varepsilon}$ We observe that a $(1-\eps)$-approximation algorithm to Independent Set, that works for any induced subgraph of the input graph, can be used, via a polynomial time reduction, to provide a…

We study the problem of differentially private (DP) computation of coreset for the $k$-means objective. For a given input set of points, a coreset is another set of points such that the $k$-means objective for any candidate solution is…

In a connected simple graph G = (V(G),E(G)), each vertex is assigned one of c colors, where V(G) can be written as a union of a total of c subsets V_{1},...,V_{c} and V_{i} denotes the set of vertices of color i. A subset S of V(G) is…

In the planar one-round discrete Voronoi game, two players $\mathcal{P}$ and $\mathcal{Q}$ compete over a set $V$ of $n$ voters represented by points in $\mathbb{R}^2$. First, $\mathcal{P}$ places a set $P$ of $k$ points, then $\mathcal{Q}$…

The union volume estimation problem asks to $(1\pm\varepsilon)$-approximate the volume of the union of $n$ given objects $X_1,\ldots,X_n \subset \mathbb{R}^d$. In their seminal work in 1989, Karp, Luby, and Madras solved this problem in…

Let $\Gamma$ be an arrangement of Jordan curves in the plane, i.e., simple closed curves in the plane. For any curve $\gamma \in \Gamma$, we denote the bounded region enclosed by $\gamma$ as $\tilde{\gamma}$. We say that $\Gamma$ is…

Given a set of $n\geq 1$ unit disk robots in the Euclidean plane, we consider the fundamental problem of providing mutual visibility to them: the robots must reposition themselves to reach a configuration where they all see each other. This…

Accurately estimating decision boundaries in black box systems is critical when ensuring safety, quality, and feasibility in real-world applications. However, existing methods iteratively refine boundary estimates by sampling in regions of…

The Betti tables of a multigraded module encode the grades at which there is an algebraic change in the module. Multigraded modules show up in many areas of pure and applied mathematics, and in particular in topological data analysis, where…

A $1.5$D terrain is a simple polygon bounded by a line segment $\ell$ and a polygonal chain monotone with respect to the line segment $\ell$. Usually, $\ell$ is chosen aligned to the $x$-axis, and is called the base of the terrain. In this…

The (unweighted) point-separation problem asks, given a pair of points $s$ and $t$ in the plane, and a set of candidate geometric objects, for the minimum-size subset of objects whose union blocks all paths from $s$ to $t$. Recent work has…

A merge tree is a fundamental topological structure used to capture the sub-level set (and similarly, super-level set) topology in scalar data analysis. The interleaving distance is a theoretically sound, stable metric for comparing merge…

Consider $n$ points generated uniformly at random in the unit square, and let $L_n$ be the length of their optimal traveling salesman tour. Beardwood, Halton, and Hammersley (1959) showed $L_n / \sqrt n \to \beta$ almost surely as $n\to…

In the noisy primitives model, each primitive comparison performed by an algorithm, e.g., testing whether one value is greater than another, returns the incorrect answer with random, independent probability p < 1/2 and otherwise returns a…

2D nesting problems rank among the most challenging cutting and packing problems. Yet, despite their practical relevance, research over the past decade has seen remarkably little progress. One reasonable explanation could be that nesting…

Given two polygonal curves $P$ and $Q$ defined by $n$ and $m$ vertices with $m\leq n$, we show that the discrete Fr\'echet distance in 1D cannot be approximated within a factor of $2-\varepsilon$ in $\mathcal{O}((nm)^{1-\delta})$ time for…

We provide a linear time algorithm to determine the flip distance between two plane spanning paths on a point set in convex position. At the same time, we show that the happy edge property does not hold in this setting. This has to be seen…