7 research outputs found
Kernelization for Spreading Points
We consider the following problem about dispersing points. Given a set of
points in the plane, the task is to identify whether by moving a small number
of points by small distance, we can obtain an arrangement of points such that
no pair of points is ``close" to each other. More precisely, for a family of
points, an integer , and a real number , we ask whether at most
points could be relocated, each point at distance at most from its
original location, such that the distance between each pair of points is at
least a fixed constant, say . A number of approximation algorithms for
variants of this problem, under different names like distant representatives,
disk dispersing, or point spreading, are known in the literature. However, to
the best of our knowledge, the parameterized complexity of this problem remains
widely unexplored. We make the first step in this direction by providing a
kernelization algorithm that, in polynomial time, produces an equivalent
instance with points. As a byproduct of this result, we also design
a non-trivial fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) algorithm for the problem,
parameterized by and . Finally, we complement the result about
polynomial kernelization by showing a lower bound that rules out the existence
of a kernel whose size is polynomial in alone, unless
LIPIcs, Volume 274, ESA 2023, Complete Volume
LIPIcs, Volume 274, ESA 2023, Complete Volum
Dispersion in Unit Disks
We present two new approximation algorithms with (improved) constant ratios for selecting points in unit disks such that the minimum pairwise distance among the points is maximized.
(I) A very simple -time algorithm with ratio for disjoint unit disks. In combination with an algorithm of Cabello~cite{Ca07}, it yields a -time algorithm
with ratio of for dispersion in not necessarily disjoint
unit disks.
(II) A more sophisticated LP-based algorithm with ratio for
disjoint unit disks that uses a linear number of variables and
constraints, and runs in polynomial time.
The algorithm introduces a novel technique which combines linear
programming and projections for approximating distances.
The previous best approximation ratio for disjoint unit disks was . Our results give a partial answer to an open question raised by Cabello~cite{Ca07}, who asked whether could be improved