On Polygons Excluding Point Sets

By a polygonization of a finite point set $S$ in the plane we understand a simple polygon having $S$ as the set of its vertices. Let $B$ and $R$ be sets of blue and red points, respectively, in the plane such that $B\cup R$ is in general position, and the convex hull of $B$ contains $k$ interior blue points and $l$ interior red points. Hurtado et al. found sufficient conditions for the existence of a blue polygonization that encloses all red points. We consider the dual question of the existence of a blue polygonization that excludes all red points $R$. We show that there is a minimal number $K=K(l)$, which is polynomial in $l$, such that one can always find a blue polygonization excluding all red points, whenever $k\geq K$. Some other related problems are also considered.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figure

On kk-Gons and kk-Holes in Point Sets

We consider a variation of the classical Erd\H{o}s-Szekeres problems on the existence and number of convex $k$-gons and $k$-holes (empty $k$-gons) in a set of $n$ points in the plane. Allowing the $k$-gons to be non-convex, we show bounds and structural results on maximizing and minimizing their numbers. Most noteworthy, for any $k$ and sufficiently large $n$, we give a quadratic lower bound for the number of $k$-holes, and show that this number is maximized by sets in convex position

Circumscribing Polygons and Polygonizations for Disjoint Line Segments

Given a planar straight-line graph G=(V,E) in R^2, a circumscribing polygon of G is a simple polygon P whose vertex set is V, and every edge in E is either an edge or an internal diagonal of P. A circumscribing polygon is a polygonization for G if every edge in E is an edge of P. We prove that every arrangement of n disjoint line segments in the plane has a subset of size Omega(sqrt{n}) that admits a circumscribing polygon, which is the first improvement on this bound in 20 years. We explore relations between circumscribing polygons and other problems in combinatorial geometry, and generalizations to R^3. We show that it is NP-complete to decide whether a given graph G admits a circumscribing polygon, even if G is 2-regular. Settling a 30-year old conjecture by Rappaport, we also show that it is NP-complete to determine whether a geometric matching admits a polygonization

On polygons enclosing point sets II

Let R and B be disjoint point sets such that $R\cup B$ is in general position. We say that B encloses by R if there is a simple polygon P with vertex set B such that all the elements in R belong to the interior of P. In this paper we prove that if the vertices of the convex hull of $R\cup B$ belong to B, and |R| ≤ |Conv(B)| − 1 then B encloses R. The bound is tight. This improves on results of a previous paper in which it was proved that if |R| ≤ 56|Conv (B)| then B encloses R. To obtain our result we prove the next result which is interesting on its own right: Let P be a convex polygon with n vertices \emph{p_1},...,\emph{p_n} and S a set of m points contained in the interior of P, m ≤ n−1. Then there is a convex decomposition {$P_1$,...,$P_n$} of P such that all points from S lie on the boundaries of $P_1$,...,$P_n$, and each $P_i$ contains a whole edge of P on its boundary.Postprint (published version

Counting Triangulations and other Crossing-Free Structures Approximately

We consider the problem of counting straight-edge triangulations of a given set $P$ of $n$ points in the plane. Until very recently it was not known whether the exact number of triangulations of $P$ can be computed asymptotically faster than by enumerating all triangulations. We now know that the number of triangulations of $P$ can be computed in $O^{*}(2^{n})$ time, which is less than the lower bound of $\Omega(2.43^{n})$ on the number of triangulations of any point set. In this paper we address the question of whether one can approximately count triangulations in sub-exponential time. We present an algorithm with sub-exponential running time and sub-exponential approximation ratio, that is, denoting by $\Lambda$ the output of our algorithm, and by $c^{n}$ the exact number of triangulations of $P$, for some positive constant $c$, we prove that $c^{n}\leq\Lambda\leq c^{n}\cdot 2^{o(n)}$. This is the first algorithm that in sub-exponential time computes a $(1+o(1))$-approximation of the base of the number of triangulations, more precisely, $c\leq\Lambda^{\frac{1}{n}}\leq(1 + o(1))c$. Our algorithm can be adapted to approximately count other crossing-free structures on $P$, keeping the quality of approximation and running time intact. In this paper we show how to do this for matchings and spanning trees.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures. A preliminary version appeared at CCCG 201

Non-Crossing Hamiltonian Paths and Cycles in Output-Polynomial Time

We show that, for planar point sets, the number of non-crossing Hamiltonian paths is polynomially bounded in the number of non-crossing paths, and the number of non-crossing Hamiltonian cycles (polygonalizations) is polynomially bounded in the number of surrounding cycles. As a consequence, we can list the non-crossing Hamiltonian paths or the polygonalizations, in time polynomial in the output size, by filtering the output of simple backtracking algorithms for non-crossing paths or surrounding cycles respectively. To prove these results we relate the numbers of non-crossing structures to two easily-computed parameters of the point set: the minimum number of points whose removal results in a collinear set, and the number of points interior to the convex hull. These relations also lead to polynomial-time approximation algorithms for the numbers of structures of all four types, accurate to within a constant factor of the logarithm of these numbers