Related papers: Exploring a planet, revisited
We show that a realization of a closed connected PL-manifold of dimension n-1 in n-dimensional Euclidean space (n>2) is the boundary of a convex polyhedron (finite or infinite) if and only if the interior of each (n-3)-face has a point,…
The Apollonius problem asks for a sphere tangent to $n+1$ given spheres or hyperplanes in $\mathbb{R}^n$. This problem has been widely studied for an isolated configuration of $n+1$ spheres. In this paper, we study relations among the…
Uniformly distributed point sets on the unit sphere with and without symmetry constraints have been found useful in many scientific and engineering applications. Here, a novel variant of the Thomson problem is proposed and formulated as an…
In this paper we explicitly estimate the number of points in a subset $A \subset \R^{d}$ as a function of the maximum angle $\angle A$ that any three of these points form, provided $\angle A < \theta_d := \arccos(-\frac 1 {d}) \in…
We consider the problem of partitioning the edges of a graph into as few paths as possible. This is a~subject of the classic conjecture of Gallai and a recurring topic in combinatorics. Regarding the complexity of partitioning a graph…
We introduce the notion of locally consistent system of half-spaces for a real hyperplane arrangement. We embed a sphere in the complexified complement by shifting the real unit sphere into the imaginary direction indicated by the…
We consider the problem of computing the Fr\'echet distance between two curves for which the exact locations of the vertices are unknown. Each vertex may be placed in a given uncertainty region for that vertex, and the objective is to place…
Erdos, Herzog and Piranian asked whether, for $n$ points in the plane with fixed diameter (maximum distance between points), an arrangement of a regular $n$-gon maximizes their product of all pairs of distances. Recently, it was discovered…
John Conway's Circle Theorem is a gem of plane geometry. The six points formed by continuing the sides of a triangle beyond every vertex by the length of its opposite side, are concyclic. The theorem has attracted several proofs. We present…
We consider the problem of finding an optimal piecewise linear path (polygonal line) connecting two given points with the possibility of making n turns at some points (the absolute value of each turn angle does not exceed a prescribed…
Splay trees are a simple and efficient dynamic data structure, invented by Sleator and Tarjan. The basic primitive for transforming a binary tree in this scheme is a rotation. Sleator, Tarjan, and Thurston proved that the maximum rotation…
We consider the geometric Titius-Bode rule for the semimajor axes of planetary orbits. We derive an equivalent rule for the midpoints of the segments between consecutive orbits along the radial direction and we interpret it physically in…
Globally optimal free flight trajectory optimization can be achieved with a combination of discrete and continuous optimization. A key requirement is that Newton's method for continuous optimization converges in a sufficiently large…
In this paper, we introduce and study the following problem and its further generalizations: given two finite collections of sets in a normed space, find a ball whose center lies in a given constraint set with the smallest radius that…
Black-hole spacetimes with a "photonsphere", a hypersurface on which massless particles can orbit the black hole on circular null geodesics, are studied. We prove that among all possible trajectories (both geodesic and non-geodesic) which…
Juno Mission to Jupiter has found closely-packed cyclones at the planet's two poles. The observation that these cyclones coexist in very confined space, with outer rims almost touching each other but without merging, poses a big puzzle. In…
The problem of finding the distance from a given $n \times n$ matrix polynomial of degree $k$ to the set of matrix polynomials having the elementary divisor $(\lambda-\lambda_0)^j, \, j \geqslant r,$ for a fixed scalar $\lambda_0$ and $2…
We investigate the group of points of the $3$-sphere modulo a prime, point out connections to other known groups and the Chebyshev polynomials, and show that there is an infinite series which converges if and only if there are finitely many…
We study the edge-length polytope, motivated both by algorithmic research on the Circulant Traveling Salesman Problem (Circulant TSP) and number-theoretic research related to the Buratti-Horak-Rosa conjecture. Circulant TSP is a special…
In this paper we study the NP-Hard problem of maximizing the distance over an intersection of balls to a given point. We expand the results found in \cite{funcos1}, where the authors characterize the farthest in an intersection of balls…