Triangles and Girth in Disk Graphs and Transmission Graphs

Let S subset R^2 be a set of n sites, where each s in S has an associated radius r_s > 0. The disk graph D(S) is the undirected graph with vertex set S and an undirected edge between two sites s, t in S if and only if |st| <= r_s + r_t, i.e., if the disks with centers s and t and respective radii r_s and r_t intersect. Disk graphs are used to model sensor networks. Similarly, the transmission graph T(S) is the directed graph with vertex set S and a directed edge from a site s to a site t if and only if |st| <= r_s, i.e., if t lies in the disk with center s and radius r_s. We provide algorithms for detecting (directed) triangles and, more generally, computing the length of a shortest cycle (the girth) in D(S) and in T(S). These problems are notoriously hard in general, but better solutions exist for special graph classes such as planar graphs. We obtain similarly efficient results for disk graphs and for transmission graphs. More precisely, we show that a shortest (Euclidean) triangle in D(S) and in T(S) can be found in O(n log n) expected time, and that the (weighted) girth of D(S) can be found in O(n log n) expected time. For this, we develop new tools for batched range searching that may be of independent interest

Spanners and Reachability Oracles for Directed Transmission Graphs

Let P be a set of n points in d dimensions, each with an associated radius r_p > 0. The transmission graph G for P has vertex set P and an edge from p to q if and only if q lies in the ball with radius r_p around p. Let t > 1. A t-spanner H for G is a sparse subgraph of G such that for any two vertices p, q connected by a path of length l in G, there is a p-q-path of length at most tl in H. We show how to compute a t-spanner for G if d=2. The running time is O(n (log n + log Psi)), where Psi is the ratio of the largest and smallest radius of two points in P. We extend this construction to be independent of Psi at the expense of a polylogarithmic overhead in the running time. As a first application, we prove a property of the t-spanner that allows us to find a BFS tree in G for any given start vertex s of P in the same time. After that, we deal with reachability oracles for G. These are data structures that answer reachability queries: given two vertices, is there a directed path between them? The quality of a reachability oracle is measured by the space S(n), the query time Q(n), and the preproccesing time. For d=1, we show how to compute an oracle with Q(n) = O(1) and S(n) = O(n) in time O(n log n). For d=2, the radius ratio Psi again turns out to be an important measure for the complexity of the problem. We present three different data structures whose quality depends on Psi: (i) if Psi = sqrt(3), we get Q(n) = O(Psi^3 sqrt(n)) and S(n) = O(Psi^5 n^(3/2)); and (iii) if Psi is polynomially bounded in n, we use probabilistic methods to obtain an oracle with Q(n) = O(n^(2/3)log n) and S(n) = O(n^(5/3) log n) that answers queries correctly with high probability. We employ our t-spanner to achieve a fast preproccesing time of O(Psi^5 n^(3/2)) and O(n^(5/3) log^2 n) in case (ii) and (iii), respectively

Improved Time-Space Trade-Offs for Computing Voronoi Diagrams

Let P be a planar n-point set in general position. For k between 1 and n-1, the Voronoi diagram of order k is obtained by subdividing the plane into regions such that points in the same cell have the same set of nearest k neighbors in P. The (nearest point) Voronoi diagram (NVD) and the farthest point Voronoi diagram (FVD) are the particular cases of k=1 and k=n-1, respectively. It is known that the family of all higher-order Voronoi diagrams of order 1 to K for P can be computed in total time O(n K^2 + n log n) using O(K^2(n-K)) space. Also NVD and FVD can be computed in O(n log n) time using O(n) space. For s in {1, ..., n}, an s-workspace algorithm has random access to a read-only array with the sites of P in arbitrary order. Additionally, the algorithm may use O(s) words of Theta(log n) bits each for reading and writing intermediate data. The output can be written only once and cannot be accessed afterwards. We describe a deterministic s-workspace algorithm for computing an NVD and also an FVD for P that runs in O((n^2/s) log s) time. Moreover, we generalize our s-workspace algorithm for computing the family of all higher-order Voronoi diagrams of P up to order K in O(sqrt(s)) in total time O( (n^2 K^6 / s) log^(1+epsilon)(K) (log s / log K)^(O(1)) ) for any fixed epsilon > 0. Previously, for Voronoi diagrams, the only known s-workspace algorithm was to find an NVD for P in expected time O((n^2/s) log s + n log s log^*s). Unlike the previous algorithm, our new method is very simple and does not rely on advanced data structures or random sampling techniques

Dynamic Connectivity in Disk Graphs

Let S ⊆ R2 be a set of n sites in the plane, so that every site s ∈ S has an associated radius rs > 0. Let D(S) be the disk intersection graph defined by S, i.e., the graph with vertex set S and an edge between two distinct sites s, t ∈ S if and only if the disks with centers s, t and radii rs , rt intersect. Our goal is to design data structures that maintain the connectivity structure of D(S) as sites are inserted and/or deleted in S. First, we consider unit disk graphs, i.e., we fix rs = 1, for all sites s ∈ S. For this case, we describe a data structure that has O(log2 n) amortized update time and O(log n/ log log n) query time. Second, we look at disk graphs with bounded radius ratio Ψ, i.e., for all s ∈ S, we have 1 ≤ rs ≤ Ψ, for a parameter Ψ that is known in advance. Here, we not only investigate the fully dynamic case, but also the incremental and the decremental scenario, where only insertions or only deletions of sites are allowed. In the fully dynamic case, we achieve amortized expected update time O(Ψ log4 n) and query time O(log n/ log log n). This improves the currently best update time by a factor of Ψ. In the incremental case, we achieve logarithmic dependency on Ψ, with a data structure that has O(α(n)) amortized query time and O(log Ψ log4 n) amortized expected update time, where α(n) denotes the inverse Ackermann function. For the decremental setting, we first develop an efficient decremental disk revealing data structure: given two sets R and B of disks in the plane, we can delete disks from B, and upon each deletion, we receive a list of all disks in R that no longer intersect the union of B. Using this data structure, we get decremental data structures with a query time of O(log n/ log log n) that supports deletions in O(n log Ψ log4 n) overall expected time for disk graphs with bounded radius ratio Ψ and O(n log5 n) overall expected time for disk graphs with arbitrary radii, assuming that the deletion sequence is oblivious of the internal random choices of the data structures

Stabbing Pairwise Intersecting Disks by Five Points

Suppose we are given a set D of n pairwise intersecting disks in the plane. A planar point set P stabs D if and only if each disk in D contains at least one point from P. We present a deterministic algorithm that takes O(n) time to find five points that stab D. Furthermore, we give a simple example of 13 pairwise intersecting disks that cannot be stabbed by three points. This provides a simple - albeit slightly weaker - algorithmic version of a classical result by Danzer that such a set D can always be stabbed by four points

Improved time-space trade-offs for computing Voronoi diagrams

Let P be a planar set of n sites in general position. For k∈{1,…,n−1}, the Voronoi diagram of order k for P is obtained by subdividing the plane into cells such that points in the same cell have the same set of nearest k neighbors in P. The (nearest site) Voronoi diagram (NVD) and the farthest site Voronoi diagram (FVD) are the particular cases of k=1 and k=n−1, respectively. For any given K∈{1,…,n−1}, the family of all higher-order Voronoi diagrams of order k=1,…,K for P can be computed in total time O(nK2+nlogn) using O(K2(n−K)) space [Aggarwal et al., DCG'89; Lee, TC'82]. Moreover, NVD and FVD for P can be computed in O(nlogn) time using O(n) space [Preparata, Shamos, Springer'85]. For s∈{1,…,n} , an s-workspace algorithm has random access to a read-only array with the sites of P in arbitrary order. Additionally, the algorithm may use O(s) words, of Θ(logn) bits each, for reading and writing intermediate data. The output can be written only once and cannot be accessed or modified afterwards. We describe a deterministic s -workspace algorithm for computing NVD and FVD for P that runs in O((n2/s)logs) time. Moreover, we generalize our s-workspace algorithm so that for any given K∈O(s√), we compute the family of all higher-order Voronoi diagrams of order k=1,…,K for P in total expected time O(n2K5s(logs+K2O(log∗K))) or in total deterministic time O(n2K5s(logs+KlogK)). Previously, for Voronoi diagrams, the only known s-workspace algorithm runs in expected time O((n2/s)logs+nlogslog∗s) [Korman et al., WADS'15] and only works for NVD (i.e., k=1). Unlike the previous algorithm, our new method is very simple and does not rely on advanced data structures or random sampling techniques