Dynamic Light Spanners in Doubling Metrics

A $t$-spanner of a point set $X$ in a metric space $(\mathcal{X}, \delta)$ is a graph $G$ with vertex set $P$ such that, for any pair of points $u,v \in X$, the distance between $u$ and $v$ in $G$ is at most $t$ times $\delta(u,v)$. We study the problem of maintaining a spanner for a dynamic point set $X$ -- that is, when $X$ undergoes a sequence of insertions and deletions -- in a metric space of constant doubling dimension. For any constant $\varepsilon>0$, we maintain a $(1+\varepsilon)$-spanner of $P$ whose total weight remains within a constant factor of the weight of the minimum spanning tree of $X$. Each update (insertion or deletion) can be performed in $\operatorname{poly}(\log \Phi)$ time, where $\Phi$ denotes the aspect ratio of $X$. Prior to our work, no efficient dynamic algorithm for maintaining a light-weight spanner was known even for point sets in low-dimensional Euclidean space.