275 research outputs found
Bounding Helly numbers via Betti numbers
We show that very weak topological assumptions are enough to ensure the
existence of a Helly-type theorem. More precisely, we show that for any
non-negative integers and there exists an integer such that
the following holds. If is a finite family of subsets of such that for any
and every
then has Helly number at most . Here
denotes the reduced -Betti numbers (with singular homology). These
topological conditions are sharp: not controlling any of these first Betti numbers allow for families with unbounded Helly number.
Our proofs combine homological non-embeddability results with a Ramsey-based
approach to build, given an arbitrary simplicial complex , some well-behaved
chain map .Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure
Topological obstructions for vertex numbers of Minkowski sums
We show that for polytopes P_1, P_2, ..., P_r \subset \R^d, each having n_i
\ge d+1 vertices, the Minkowski sum P_1 + P_2 + ... + P_r cannot achieve the
maximum of \prod_i n_i vertices if r \ge d. This complements a recent result of
Fukuda & Weibel (2006), who show that this is possible for up to d-1 summands.
The result is obtained by combining methods from discrete geometry (Gale
transforms) and topological combinatorics (van Kampen--type obstructions) as
developed in R\"{o}rig, Sanyal, and Ziegler (2007).Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures; Improved exposition and less typos.
Construction/example and remarks adde
Optimally fast incremental Manhattan plane embedding and planar tight span construction
We describe a data structure, a rectangular complex, that can be used to
represent hyperconvex metric spaces that have the same topology (although not
necessarily the same distance function) as subsets of the plane. We show how to
use this data structure to construct the tight span of a metric space given as
an n x n distance matrix, when the tight span is homeomorphic to a subset of
the plane, in time O(n^2), and to add a single point to a planar tight span in
time O(n). As an application of this construction, we show how to test whether
a given finite metric space embeds isometrically into the Manhattan plane in
time O(n^2), and add a single point to the space and re-test whether it has
such an embedding in time O(n).Comment: 39 pages, 15 figure
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