Quasi-Parallel Segments and Characterization of Unique Bichromatic Matchings

Given n red and n blue points in general position in the plane, it is well-known that there is a perfect matching formed by non-crossing line segments. We characterize the bichromatic point sets which admit exactly one non-crossing matching. We give several geometric descriptions of such sets, and find an O(nlogn) algorithm that checks whether a given bichromatic set has this property.Comment: 31 pages, 24 figure

Balanced partitions of 3-colored geometric sets in the plane

Let SS be a finite set of geometric objects partitioned into classes or colors . A subset S'¿SS'¿S is said to be balanced if S'S' contains the same amount of elements of SS from each of the colors. We study several problems on partitioning 33-colored sets of points and lines in the plane into two balanced subsets: (a) We prove that for every 3-colored arrangement of lines there exists a segment that intersects exactly one line of each color, and that when there are 2m2m lines of each color, there is a segment intercepting mm lines of each color. (b) Given nn red points, nn blue points and nn green points on any closed Jordan curve ¿¿, we show that for every integer kk with 0=k=n0=k=n there is a pair of disjoint intervals on ¿¿ whose union contains exactly kk points of each color. (c) Given a set SS of nn red points, nn blue points and nn green points in the integer lattice satisfying certain constraints, there exist two rays with common apex, one vertical and one horizontal, whose union splits the plane into two regions, each one containing a balanced subset of SS.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

On Range Searching with Semialgebraic Sets II

Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in $\R^d$. We present a linear-size data structure for answering range queries on $P$ with constant-complexity semialgebraic sets as ranges, in time close to $O(n^{1-1/d})$. It essentially matches the performance of similar structures for simplex range searching, and, for $d\ge 5$, significantly improves earlier solutions by the first two authors obtained in~1994. This almost settles a long-standing open problem in range searching. The data structure is based on the polynomial-partitioning technique of Guth and Katz [arXiv:1011.4105], which shows that for a parameter $r$, $1 < r \le n$, there exists a $d$-variate polynomial $f$ of degree $O(r^{1/d})$ such that each connected component of $\R^d\setminus Z(f)$ contains at most $n/r$ points of $P$, where $Z(f)$ is the zero set of $f$. We present an efficient randomized algorithm for computing such a polynomial partition, which is of independent interest and is likely to have additional applications