Shortest Path in a Polygon using Sublinear Space

\renewcommand{\Re}{{\rm I\!\hspace{-0.025em} R}} \newcommand{\SetX}{\mathsf{X}} \newcommand{\VorX}[1]{\mathcal{V} \pth{#1}} \newcommand{\Polygon}{\mathsf{P}} \newcommand{\Space}{\overline{\mathsf{m}}} \newcommand{\pth}[2][\!]{#1\left({#2}\right)} We resolve an open problem due to Tetsuo Asano, showing how to compute the shortest path in a polygon, given in a read only memory, using sublinear space and subquadratic time. Specifically, given a simple polygon \Polygon with $n$ vertices in a read only memory, and additional working memory of size \Space, the new algorithm computes the shortest path (in \Polygon) in O( n^2 /\, \Space ) expected time. This requires several new tools, which we believe to be of independent interest

Negative curvature in graphical small cancellation groups

We use the interplay between combinatorial and coarse geometric versions of negative curvature to investigate the geometry of infinitely presented graphical $Gr'(1/6)$ small cancellation groups. In particular, we characterize their 'contracting geodesics', which should be thought of as the geodesics that behave hyperbolically. We show that every degree of contraction can be achieved by a geodesic in a finitely generated group. We construct the first example of a finitely generated group $G$ containing an element $g$ that is strongly contracting with respect to one finite generating set of $G$ and not strongly contracting with respect to another. In the case of classical $C'(1/6)$ small cancellation groups we give complete characterizations of geodesics that are Morse and that are strongly contracting. We show that many graphical $Gr'(1/6)$ small cancellation groups contain strongly contracting elements and, in particular, are growth tight. We construct uncountably many quasi-isometry classes of finitely generated, torsion-free groups in which every maximal cyclic subgroup is hyperbolically embedded. These are the first examples of this kind that are not subgroups of hyperbolic groups. In the course of our analysis we show that if the defining graph of a graphical $Gr'(1/6)$ small cancellation group has finite components, then the elements of the group have translation lengths that are rational and bounded away from zero.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figures, v2: improved introduction, updated statement of Theorem 4.4, v3: new title (previously: "Contracting geodesics in infinitely presented graphical small cancellation groups"), minor changes, to appear in Groups, Geometry, and Dynamic

Memory-Constrained Algorithms for Simple Polygons

A constant-workspace algorithm has read-only access to an input array and may use only O(1) additional words of $O(\log n)$ bits, where $n$ is the size of the input. We assume that a simple $n$-gon is given by the ordered sequence of its vertices. We show that we can find a triangulation of a plane straight-line graph in $O(n^2)$ time. We also consider preprocessing a simple polygon for shortest path queries when the space constraint is relaxed to allow $s$ words of working space. After a preprocessing of $O(n^2)$ time, we are able to solve shortest path queries between any two points inside the polygon in $O(n^2/s)$ time.Comment: Preprint appeared in EuroCG 201

Fully Scalable Massively Parallel Algorithms for Embedded Planar Graphs

We consider the massively parallel computation (MPC) model, which is a theoretical abstraction of large-scale parallel processing models such as MapReduce. In this model, assuming the widely believed 1-vs-2-cycles conjecture, solving many basic graph problems in $O(1)$ rounds with a strongly sublinear memory size per machine is impossible. We improve on the recent work of Holm and T\v{e}tek [SODA 2023] that bypass this barrier for problems when a planar embedding of the graph is given. In the previous work, on graphs of size $n$ with $O(n/\mathcal{S})$ machines, the memory size per machine needs to be at least $\mathcal{S} = n^{2/3+\Omega(1)}$, whereas we extend their work to the fully scalable regime, where the memory size per machine can be $\mathcal{S} = n^{\delta}$ for any constant $0< \delta < 1$. We give the first constant round fully scalable algorithms for embedded planar graphs for the problems of (i) connectivity and (ii) minimum spanning tree (MST). Moreover, we show that the $\varepsilon$-emulator of Chang, Krauthgamer, and Tan [STOC 2022] can be incorporated into our recursive framework to obtain constant-round $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithms for the problems of computing (iii) single source shortest path (SSSP), (iv) global min-cut, and (v) $st$-max flow. All previous results on cuts and flows required linear memory in the MPC model. Furthermore, our results give new algorithms for problems that implicitly involve embedded planar graphs. We give as corollaries constant round fully scalable algorithms for (vi) 2D Euclidean MST using $O(n)$ total memory and (vii) $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximate weighted edit distance using $\widetilde{O}(n^{2-\delta})$ memory. Our main technique is a recursive framework combined with novel graph drawing algorithms to compute smaller embedded planar graphs in constant rounds in the fully scalable setting.Comment: To appear in SODA24. 55 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. Added section on weighted edit distance and shortened abstrac

Trajectory Visibility

We study the problem of testing whether there exists a time at which two entities moving along different piece-wise linear trajectories among polygonal obstacles are mutually visible. We study several variants, depending on whether or not the obstacles form a simple polygon, trajectories may intersect the polygon edges, and both or only one of the entities are moving. For constant complexity trajectories contained in a simple polygon with n vertices, we provide an (n) time algorithm to test if there is a time at which the entities can see each other. If the polygon contains holes, we present an (n log n) algorithm. We show that this is tight. We then consider storing the obstacles in a data structure, such that queries consisting of two line segments can be efficiently answered. We show that for all variants it is possible to answer queries in sublinear time using polynomial space and preprocessing time. As a critical intermediate step, we provide an efficient solution to a problem of independent interest: preprocess a convex polygon such that we can efficiently test intersection with a quadratic curve segment. If the obstacles form a simple polygon, this allows us to answer visibility queries in (n³/4log³ n) time using (nlog⁵ n) space. For more general obstacles the query time is (log^k n), for a constant but large value k, using (n^{3k}) space. We provide more efficient solutions when one of the entities remains stationary