937 research outputs found

    Dense point sets have sparse Delaunay triangulations

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    The spread of a finite set of points is the ratio between the longest and shortest pairwise distances. We prove that the Delaunay triangulation of any set of n points in R^3 with spread D has complexity O(D^3). This bound is tight in the worst case for all D = O(sqrt{n}). In particular, the Delaunay triangulation of any dense point set has linear complexity. We also generalize this upper bound to regular triangulations of k-ply systems of balls, unions of several dense point sets, and uniform samples of smooth surfaces. On the other hand, for any n and D=O(n), we construct a regular triangulation of complexity Omega(nD) whose n vertices have spread D.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures. Full version of SODA 2002 paper. Also available at http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/~jeffe/pubs/screw.htm

    Kinetic and Dynamic Delaunay tetrahedralizations in three dimensions

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    We describe the implementation of algorithms to construct and maintain three-dimensional dynamic Delaunay triangulations with kinetic vertices using a three-simplex data structure. The code is capable of constructing the geometric dual, the Voronoi or Dirichlet tessellation. Initially, a given list of points is triangulated. Time evolution of the triangulation is not only governed by kinetic vertices but also by a changing number of vertices. We use three-dimensional simplex flip algorithms, a stochastic visibility walk algorithm for point location and in addition, we propose a new simple method of deleting vertices from an existing three-dimensional Delaunay triangulation while maintaining the Delaunay property. The dual Dirichlet tessellation can be used to solve differential equations on an irregular grid, to define partitions in cell tissue simulations, for collision detection etc.Comment: 29 pg (preprint), 12 figures, 1 table Title changed (mainly nomenclature), referee suggestions included, typos corrected, bibliography update

    Planar maps, circle patterns and 2d gravity

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    Via circle pattern techniques, random planar triangulations (with angle variables) are mapped onto Delaunay triangulations in the complex plane. The uniform measure on triangulations is mapped onto a conformally invariant spatial point process. We show that this measure can be expressed as: (1) a sum over 3-spanning-trees partitions of the edges of the Delaunay triangulations; (2) the volume form of a K\"ahler metric over the space of Delaunay triangulations, whose prepotential has a simple formulation in term of ideal tessellations of the 3d hyperbolic space; (3) a discretized version (involving finite difference complex derivative operators) of Polyakov's conformal Fadeev-Popov determinant in 2d gravity; (4) a combination of Chern classes, thus also establishing a link with topological 2d gravity.Comment: Misprints corrected and a couple of footnotes added. 42 pages, 17 figure

    Three-dimensional alpha shapes

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    Frequently, data in scientific computing is in its abstract form a finite point set in space, and it is sometimes useful or required to compute what one might call the ``shape'' of the set. For that purpose, this paper introduces the formal notion of the family of α\alpha-shapes of a finite point set in \Real^3. Each shape is a well-defined polytope, derived from the Delaunay triangulation of the point set, with a parameter \alpha \in \Real controlling the desired level of detail. An algorithm is presented that constructs the entire family of shapes for a given set of size nn in time O(n2)O(n^2), worst case. A robust implementation of the algorithm is discussed and several applications in the area of scientific computing are mentioned.Comment: 32 page

    On Monotone Sequences of Directed Flips, Triangulations of Polyhedra, and Structural Properties of a Directed Flip Graph

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    This paper studied the geometric and combinatorial aspects of the classical Lawson's flip algorithm in 1972. Let A be a finite set of points in R2, omega be a height function which lifts the vertices of A into R3. Every flip in triangulations of A can be associated with a direction. We first established a relatively obvious relation between monotone sequences of directed flips between triangulations of A and triangulations of the lifted point set of A in R3. We then studied the structural properties of a directed flip graph (a poset) on the set of all triangulations of A. We proved several general properties of this poset which clearly explain when Lawson's algorithm works and why it may fail in general. We further characterised the triangulations which cause failure of Lawson's algorithm, and showed that they must contain redundant interior vertices which are not removable by directed flips. A special case if this result in 3d has been shown by B.Joe in 1989. As an application, we described a simple algorithm to triangulate a special class of 3d non-convex polyhedra. We proved sufficient conditions for the termination of this algorithm and show that it runs in O(n3) time.Comment: 40 pages, 35 figure

    Regular triangulations of dynamic sets of points

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    The Delaunay triangulations of a set of points are a class of triangulations which play an important role in a variety of different disciplines of science. Regular triangulations are a generalization of Delaunay triangulations that maintain both their relationship with convex hulls and with Voronoi diagrams. In regular triangulations, a real value, its weight, is assigned to each point. In this paper a simple data structure is presented that allows regular triangulations of sets of points to be dynamically updated, that is, new points can be incrementally inserted in the set and old points can be deleted from it. The algorithms we propose for insertion and deletion are based on a geometrical interpretation of the history data structure in one more dimension and use lifted flips as the unique topological operation. This results in rather simple and efficient algorithms. The algorithms have been implemented and experimental results are given.Postprint (published version
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