84 research outputs found
Counting Triangulations and other Crossing-Free Structures Approximately
We consider the problem of counting straight-edge triangulations of a given
set of points in the plane. Until very recently it was not known
whether the exact number of triangulations of can be computed
asymptotically faster than by enumerating all triangulations. We now know that
the number of triangulations of can be computed in time,
which is less than the lower bound of on the number of
triangulations of any point set. In this paper we address the question of
whether one can approximately count triangulations in sub-exponential time. We
present an algorithm with sub-exponential running time and sub-exponential
approximation ratio, that is, denoting by the output of our
algorithm, and by the exact number of triangulations of , for some
positive constant , we prove that . This is the first algorithm that in sub-exponential time computes a
-approximation of the base of the number of triangulations, more
precisely, . Our algorithm can be
adapted to approximately count other crossing-free structures on , keeping
the quality of approximation and running time intact. In this paper we show how
to do this for matchings and spanning trees.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures. A preliminary version appeared at CCCG 201
Enumerating Constrained Non-Crossing Minimally Rigid Frameworks
In this paper we present an algorithm for enumerating without repetitions all the non-crossing generically minimally rigid bar-and-joint frameworks under edge constraints, which we call constrained non-crossing Laman frameworks, on a given set of n points in the plane. Our algorithm is based on the reverse search paradigm of Avis and Fukuda. It generates each output graph in O(n4) time and O(n) space, or, with a slightly different implementation, in O(n3) time and O(n2) space. In particular, we obtain that the set of all the constrained non-crossing Laman frameworks on a given point set is connected by flips which preserve the Laman property
Expansive Motions and the Polytope of Pointed Pseudo-Triangulations
We introduce the polytope of pointed pseudo-triangulations of a point set in
the plane, defined as the polytope of infinitesimal expansive motions of the
points subject to certain constraints on the increase of their distances. Its
1-skeleton is the graph whose vertices are the pointed pseudo-triangulations of
the point set and whose edges are flips of interior pseudo-triangulation edges.
For points in convex position we obtain a new realization of the
associahedron, i.e., a geometric representation of the set of triangulations of
an n-gon, or of the set of binary trees on n vertices, or of many other
combinatorial objects that are counted by the Catalan numbers. By considering
the 1-dimensional version of the polytope of constrained expansive motions we
obtain a second distinct realization of the associahedron as a perturbation of
the positive cell in a Coxeter arrangement.
Our methods produce as a by-product a new proof that every simple polygon or
polygonal arc in the plane has expansive motions, a key step in the proofs of
the Carpenter's Rule Theorem by Connelly, Demaine and Rote (2000) and by
Streinu (2000).Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures. Changes from v1: added some comments (specially
to the "Further remarks" in Section 5) + changed to final book format. This
version is to appear in "Discrete and Computational Geometry -- The
Goodman-Pollack Festschrift" (B. Aronov, S. Basu, J. Pach, M. Sharir, eds),
series "Algorithms and Combinatorics", Springer Verlag, Berli
IST Austria Thesis
This thesis considers two examples of reconfiguration problems: flipping edges in edge-labelled triangulations of planar point sets and swapping labelled tokens placed on vertices of a graph. In both cases the studied structures – all the triangulations of a given point set or all token placements on a given graph – can be thought of as vertices of the so-called reconfiguration graph, in which two vertices are adjacent if the corresponding structures differ by a single elementary operation – by a flip of a diagonal in a triangulation or by a swap of tokens on adjacent vertices, respectively. We study the reconfiguration of one instance of a structure into another via (shortest) paths in the reconfiguration graph.
For triangulations of point sets in which each edge has a unique label and a flip transfers the label from the removed edge to the new edge, we prove a polynomial-time testable condition, called the Orbit Theorem, that characterizes when two triangulations of the same point set lie in the same connected component of the reconfiguration graph. The condition was first conjectured by Bose, Lubiw, Pathak and Verdonschot. We additionally provide a polynomial time algorithm that computes a reconfiguring flip sequence, if it exists. Our proof of the Orbit Theorem uses topological properties of a certain high-dimensional cell complex that has the usual reconfiguration graph as its 1-skeleton.
In the context of token swapping on a tree graph, we make partial progress on the problem of finding shortest reconfiguration sequences. We disprove the so-called Happy Leaf Conjecture and demonstrate the importance of swapping tokens that are already placed at the correct vertices. We also prove that a generalization of the problem to weighted coloured token swapping is NP-hard on trees but solvable in polynomial time on paths and stars
Peeling and Nibbling the Cactus: Subexponential-Time Algorithms for Counting Triangulations and Related Problems
Given a set of n points S in the plane, a triangulation T of S is a maximal set of non-crossing segments with endpoints in S. We present an algorithm that computes the number of triangulations on a given set of n points in time n^{ (11+ o(1)) sqrt{n} }, significantly improving the previous best running time of O(2^n n^2) by Alvarez and Seidel [SoCG 2013]. Our main tool is identifying separators of size O(sqrt{n}) of a triangulation in a canonical way. The definition of the separators are based on the decomposition of the triangulation into nested layers ("cactus graphs"). Based on the above algorithm, we develop a simple and formal framework to count other non-crossing straight-line graphs in n^{O(sqrt{n})} time. We demonstrate the usefulness of the framework by applying it to counting non-crossing Hamilton cycles, spanning trees, perfect matchings, 3-colorable triangulations, connected graphs, cycle decompositions, quadrangulations, 3-regular graphs, and more
Peeling and nibbling the cactus: Subexponential-time algorithms for counting triangulations and related problems
Given a set of points in the plane, a triangulation of is a
maximal set of non-crossing segments with endpoints in . We present an
algorithm that computes the number of triangulations on a given set of
points in time , significantly improving the previous
best running time of by Alvarez and Seidel [SoCG 2013]. Our main
tool is identifying separators of size of a triangulation in a
canonical way. The definition of the separators are based on the decomposition
of the triangulation into nested layers ("cactus graphs"). Based on the above
algorithm, we develop a simple and formal framework to count other non-crossing
straight-line graphs in time. We demonstrate the usefulness
of the framework by applying it to counting non-crossing Hamilton cycles,
spanning trees, perfect matchings, -colorable triangulations, connected
graphs, cycle decompositions, quadrangulations, -regular graphs, and more.Comment: 47 pages, 23 Figures, to appear in SoCG 201
Counting Polygon Triangulations is Hard
We prove that it is #P-complete to count the triangulations of a (non-simple) polygon
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