On polynomials associated to Voronoi diagrams of point sets and crossing numbers

Three polynomials are defined for sets S of n points in general position in the plane: The Voronoi polynomial with coefficients the numbers of vertices of the order-k Voronoi diagrams of S, the circle polynomial with coefficients the numbers of circles through three points of S enclosing k points, and the E=k polynomial with coefficients the numbers of (at most k)-edges of S. We present several formulas for the rectilinear crossing number of S in terms of these polynomials and their roots. We also prove that the roots of the Voronoi polynomial lie on the unit circle if and only if S is in convex position. Further, we present bounds on the location of the roots of these polynomials.Postprint (published version

Fixed-Parameter Algorithms for Rectilinear Steiner tree and Rectilinear Traveling Salesman Problem in the plane

Given a set $P$ of $n$ points with their pairwise distances, the traveling salesman problem (TSP) asks for a shortest tour that visits each point exactly once. A TSP instance is rectilinear when the points lie in the plane and the distance considered between two points is the $l_1$ distance. In this paper, a fixed-parameter algorithm for the Rectilinear TSP is presented and relies on techniques for solving TSP on bounded-treewidth graphs. It proves that the problem can be solved in $O\left(nh7^h\right)$ where $h \leq n$ denotes the number of horizontal lines containing the points of $P$. The same technique can be directly applied to the problem of finding a shortest rectilinear Steiner tree that interconnects the points of $P$ providing a $O\left(nh5^h\right)$ time complexity. Both bounds improve over the best time bounds known for these problems.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, 6 table