830 research outputs found
Computational Geometry Column 42
A compendium of thirty previously published open problems in computational
geometry is presented.Comment: 7 pages; 72 reference
Optimal Point Placement for Mesh Smoothing
We study the problem of moving a vertex in an unstructured mesh of
triangular, quadrilateral, or tetrahedral elements to optimize the shapes of
adjacent elements. We show that many such problems can be solved in linear time
using generalized linear programming. We also give efficient algorithms for
some mesh smoothing problems that do not fit into the generalized linear
programming paradigm.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. A preliminary version of this paper was
presented at the 8th ACM/SIAM Symp. on Discrete Algorithms (SODA '97). This
is the final version, and will appear in a special issue of J. Algorithms for
papers from SODA '9
Near-Linear-Time Deterministic Plane Steiner Spanners and TSP Approximation for Well-Spaced Point Sets
We describe an algorithm that takes as input n points in the plane and a
parameter {\epsilon}, and produces as output an embedded planar graph having
the given points as a subset of its vertices in which the graph distances are a
(1 + {\epsilon})-approximation to the geometric distances between the given
points. For point sets in which the Delaunay triangulation has bounded sharpest
angle, our algorithm's output has O(n) vertices, its weight is O(1) times the
minimum spanning tree weight, and the algorithm's running time is bounded by
O(n \sqrt{log log n}). We use this result in a similarly fast deterministic
approximation scheme for the traveling salesperson problem.Comment: Appear at the 24th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry. To
appear in CGT
Minimum-weight triangulation is NP-hard
A triangulation of a planar point set S is a maximal plane straight-line
graph with vertex set S. In the minimum-weight triangulation (MWT) problem, we
are looking for a triangulation of a given point set that minimizes the sum of
the edge lengths. We prove that the decision version of this problem is
NP-hard. We use a reduction from PLANAR-1-IN-3-SAT. The correct working of the
gadgets is established with computer assistance, using dynamic programming on
polygonal faces, as well as the beta-skeleton heuristic to certify that certain
edges belong to the minimum-weight triangulation.Comment: 45 pages (including a technical appendix of 13 pages), 28 figures.
This revision contains a few improvements in the expositio
Sparse geometric graphs with small dilation
Given a set S of n points in R^D, and an integer k such that 0 <= k < n, we
show that a geometric graph with vertex set S, at most n - 1 + k edges, maximum
degree five, and dilation O(n / (k+1)) can be computed in time O(n log n). For
any k, we also construct planar n-point sets for which any geometric graph with
n-1+k edges has dilation Omega(n/(k+1)); a slightly weaker statement holds if
the points of S are required to be in convex position
Squarepants in a Tree: Sum of Subtree Clustering and Hyperbolic Pants Decomposition
We provide efficient constant factor approximation algorithms for the
problems of finding a hierarchical clustering of a point set in any metric
space, minimizing the sum of minimimum spanning tree lengths within each
cluster, and in the hyperbolic or Euclidean planes, minimizing the sum of
cluster perimeters. Our algorithms for the hyperbolic and Euclidean planes can
also be used to provide a pants decomposition, that is, a set of disjoint
simple closed curves partitioning the plane minus the input points into subsets
with exactly three boundary components, with approximately minimum total
length. In the Euclidean case, these curves are squares; in the hyperbolic
case, they combine our Euclidean square pants decomposition with our tree
clustering method for general metric spaces.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures. This version replaces the proof of what is now
Lemma 5.2, as the previous proof was erroneou
Aspects of Unstructured Grids and Finite-Volume Solvers for the Euler and Navier-Stokes Equations
One of the major achievements in engineering science has been the development of computer algorithms for solving nonlinear differential equations such as the Navier-Stokes equations. In the past, limited computer resources have motivated the development of efficient numerical schemes in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) utilizing structured meshes. The use of structured meshes greatly simplifies the implementation of CFD algorithms on conventional computers. Unstructured grids on the other hand offer an alternative to modeling complex geometries. Unstructured meshes have irregular connectivity and usually contain combinations of triangles, quadrilaterals, tetrahedra, and hexahedra. The generation and use of unstructured grids poses new challenges in CFD. The purpose of this note is to present recent developments in the unstructured grid generation and flow solution technology
Minimizing the stabbing number of matchings, trees, and triangulations
The (axis-parallel) stabbing number of a given set of line segments is the
maximum number of segments that can be intersected by any one (axis-parallel)
line. This paper deals with finding perfect matchings, spanning trees, or
triangulations of minimum stabbing number for a given set of points. The
complexity of these problems has been a long-standing open question; in fact,
it is one of the original 30 outstanding open problems in computational
geometry on the list by Demaine, Mitchell, and O'Rourke. The answer we provide
is negative for a number of minimum stabbing problems by showing them NP-hard
by means of a general proof technique. It implies non-trivial lower bounds on
the approximability. On the positive side we propose a cut-based integer
programming formulation for minimizing the stabbing number of matchings and
spanning trees. We obtain lower bounds (in polynomial time) from the
corresponding linear programming relaxations, and show that an optimal
fractional solution always contains an edge of at least constant weight. This
result constitutes a crucial step towards a constant-factor approximation via
an iterated rounding scheme. In computational experiments we demonstrate that
our approach allows for actually solving problems with up to several hundred
points optimally or near-optimally.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, Latex. To appear in "Discrete and Computational
Geometry". Previous version (extended abstract) appears in SODA 2004, pp.
430-43
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