Zone Diagrams in Euclidean Spaces and in Other Normed Spaces

Zone diagram is a variation on the classical concept of a Voronoi diagram. Given n sites in a metric space that compete for territory, the zone diagram is an equilibrium state in the competition. Formally it is defined as a fixed point of a certain "dominance" map. Asano, Matousek, and Tokuyama proved the existence and uniqueness of a zone diagram for point sites in Euclidean plane, and Reem and Reich showed existence for two arbitrary sites in an arbitrary metric space. We establish existence and uniqueness for n disjoint compact sites in a Euclidean space of arbitrary (finite) dimension, and more generally, in a finite-dimensional normed space with a smooth and rotund norm. The proof is considerably simpler than that of Asano et al. We also provide an example of non-uniqueness for a norm that is rotund but not smooth. Finally, we prove existence and uniqueness for two point sites in the plane with a smooth (but not necessarily rotund) norm.Comment: Title page + 16 pages, 20 figure

Distance k-Sectors Exist

The bisector of two nonempty sets P and Q in a metric space is the set of all points with equal distance to P and to Q. A distance k-sector of P and Q, where k is an integer, is a (k-1)-tuple (C_1, C_2, ..., C_{k-1}) such that C_i is the bisector of C_{i-1} and C_{i+1} for every i = 1, 2, ..., k-1, where C_0 = P and C_k = Q. This notion, for the case where P and Q are points in Euclidean plane, was introduced by Asano, Matousek, and Tokuyama, motivated by a question of Murata in VLSI design. They established the existence and uniqueness of the distance trisector in this special case. We prove the existence of a distance k-sector for all k and for every two disjoint, nonempty, closed sets P and Q in Euclidean spaces of any (finite) dimension, or more generally, in proper geodesic spaces (uniqueness remains open). The core of the proof is a new notion of k-gradation for P and Q, whose existence (even in an arbitrary metric space) is proved using the Knaster-Tarski fixed point theorem, by a method introduced by Reem and Reich for a slightly different purpose.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

On the computation of zone and double zone diagrams

Classical objects in computational geometry are defined by explicit relations. Several years ago the pioneering works of T. Asano, J. Matousek and T. Tokuyama introduced "implicit computational geometry", in which the geometric objects are defined by implicit relations involving sets. An important member in this family is called "a zone diagram". The implicit nature of zone diagrams implies, as already observed in the original works, that their computation is a challenging task. In a continuous setting this task has been addressed (briefly) only by these authors in the Euclidean plane with point sites. We discuss the possibility to compute zone diagrams in a wide class of spaces and also shed new light on their computation in the original setting. The class of spaces, which is introduced here, includes, in particular, Euclidean spheres and finite dimensional strictly convex normed spaces. Sites of a general form are allowed and it is shown that a generalization of the iterative method suggested by Asano, Matousek and Tokuyama converges to a double zone diagram, another implicit geometric object whose existence is known in general. Occasionally a zone diagram can be obtained from this procedure. The actual (approximate) computation of the iterations is based on a simple algorithm which enables the approximate computation of Voronoi diagrams in a general setting. Our analysis also yields a few byproducts of independent interest, such as certain topological properties of Voronoi cells (e.g., that in the considered setting their boundaries cannot be "fat").Comment: Very slight improvements (mainly correction of a few typos); add DOI; Ref [51] points to a freely available computer application which implements the algorithms; to appear in Discrete & Computational Geometry (available online

固定パラメータ問題に対する高速算法に基づく計算困難問題の解決

金沢大学 / 北陸先端科学技術大学院大学本研究の目的は、最近の計算機環境の下で固定パラメータ問題を高速に解決するための方法論を確立することである。そのために、単なるプログラムテクニックとして解析に反映されなかった側面を数学的に厳密に評価し、従来の解析方法とは全く異なる立場から計算の効率評価を行うことであった。今年度は、トライセクター曲線に関する研究に時間を割いた.平面上に与えられた2点に対する2等分線は容易に計算できるが,2点間に等距離の曲線を描くのは困難である.正確には,任意の精度で近似解を得ることはできるが,正確に曲線上の点を求めることは不可能(代数的でない)であることが予想される.本研究では,そのような曲線が常に存在し,ユニークに定まることを数学的にかつ構成的に証明した.それ以外にも様々な興味深い構造的な性質を明らかにした.この研究の成果は,5月に開かれた理論計算機科学では最高峰の国際会議であるSTOCにおいて発表すると共に,Advances in Mathematicsという数学ではトップクラスのジャーナルにも論文を発表した.非常に基本的な問題でありながら,これまでに全く類似の研究がなかったということはむしろ驚きである.計算幾何学においてボロノイ図は重要な研究課題のひとつである.本研究では,従来のボロノイ図の概念を一般化して,三角形に関する評価尺度に基づいた様々なボロノイ図を定義したが,特に角度ボロノイ図に興味をもち,その構造と複雑さに関する研究を行った.具体的には,線分の集合が与えられたとき,どの線分に対して定義される視角が最も小さいかという関係で平面を分割したものである.この研究では,角度ボロノイ図が通常のボロノイ図と極めて異なる性質をもつことを証明し,さらに最小の視角を最大にする点を効率よく求めるためのアルゴリズムを示している.この結果にっいては,7月に開かれたボロノイ図に関する国際ワークショップにおいて報告した.現在は,そのジャーナルバージョンを執筆中であり,近い将来にジャーナル誌に投稿をする予定である.The purpose of this research is to establish methodology for solving fixed parameter problems in an efficient way under latest computer environment. For the purpose we mathematically evaluate some aspects of programming which has not been reflected to analysis as just simple programming techniques and then analyze computational performance from a completely different standpoint from the existing ones.In this year we spent much time for the study of distance trisector curves. Given two points in the plane, it is easy to draw perpendicular bisector, but it is hard to draw two curves equidistant from each other. More exactly, we can approximate points on the curves at any precision, but it is impossible to compute their coordinates exactly without any error. In fact we conjecture that the curves are non-algebraic. In this research we proved that such curves exist and they are unique, mathematically in a constructive manner. We also found many interesting properties of the curves. The resu lts were presented at an international symposium STOC, one of the top conference in the world in this area and also published in a top mathematical journal, Advances in Mathematics. It is rather surprising that it is quite simple and fundamental problem while there is no study on the curves. We also applied the idea to Voronoi diagrams, which is one of the most important research topics in computational geometry. In this research we defined various Voronoi diagrams based on criteria on goodness of triangles by generalizing the traditional Voronoi diagrams. More concretely, given a set of line segments in the plane, an angular Voronoi diagram is a partition of the plane into regions by the relation on which line segment gives the smallest visual angle. We have shown that this Voronoi diagram has properties which are quite different from those of the exisiting ones. We also gave an efficient algorithm for finding a point that maximizes the smallest visual angle. The results were presented at an international symposium on Voronoi diagrams We are now preparing journal version of those papers to submit them to international journals.研究課題/領域番号:15300003, 研究期間(年度):2003 - 2006出典：「固定パラメータ問題に対する高速算法に基づく計算困難問題の解決」研究成果報告書　課題番号15300003（KAKEN：科学研究費助成事業データベース（国立情報学研究所）） （https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/report/KAKENHI-PROJECT-15300003/153000032006kenkyu_seika_hokoku_gaiyo/）を加工して作

Zone diagrams in Euclidean spaces and in other normed spaces

Zone diagrams are a variation on the classical concept of Voronoi diagrams. Given n sites in a metric space that compete for territory, the zone diagram is an equilibrium state in the competition. Formally it is defined as a fixed point of a certain "dominance” map. Asano, Matoušek, and Tokuyama proved the existence and uniqueness of a zone diagram for point sites in the Euclidean plane, and Reem and Reich showed existence for two arbitrary sites in an arbitrary metric space. We establish existence and uniqueness for n disjoint compact sites in a Euclidean space of arbitrary (finite) dimension, and more generally, in a finite-dimensional normed space with a smooth and rotund norm. The proof is considerably simpler than that of Asano etal. We also provide an example of non-uniqueness for a norm that is rotund but not smooth. Finally, we prove existence and uniqueness for two point sites in the plane with a smooth (but not necessarily rotund) nor

Large bichromatic point sets admit empty monochromatic 4-gons

We consider a variation of a problem stated by Erd˝os and Szekeres in 1935 about the existence of a number fES(k) such that any set S of at least fES(k) points in general position in the plane has a subset of k points that are the vertices of a convex k-gon. In our setting the points of S are colored, and we say that a (not necessarily convex) spanned polygon is monochromatic if all its vertices have the same color. Moreover, a polygon is called empty if it does not contain any points of S in its interior. We show that any bichromatic set of n ≥ 5044 points in R2 in general position determines at least one empty, monochromatic quadrilateral (and thus linearly many).Postprint (published version

Sixteenth Space Simulation Conference Confirming Spaceworthiness Into the Next Millennium

The conference provided participants with a forum to acquire and exchange information on the state of the art in space simulation, test technology, thermal simulation and protection, contamination, and techniques of test measurements