2 research outputs found
Solving the Minimum Convex Partition of Point Sets with Integer Programming
The partition of a problem into smaller sub-problems satisfying certain
properties is often a key ingredient in the design of divide-and-conquer
algorithms. For questions related to location, the partition problem can be
modeled, in geometric terms, as finding a subdivision of a planar map -- which
represents, say, a geographical area -- into regions subject to certain
conditions while optimizing some objective function. In this paper, we
investigate one of these geometric problems known as the Minimum Convex
Partition Problem (MCPP). A convex partition of a point set in the plane is
a subdivision of the convex hull of whose edges are segments with both
endpoints in and such that all internal faces are empty convex polygons.
The MCPP is an NP-hard problem where one seeks to find a convex partition with
the least number of faces.
We present a novel polygon-based integer programming formulation for the
MCPP, which leads to better dual bounds than the previously known edge-based
model. Moreover, we introduce a primal heuristic, a branching rule and a
pricing algorithm. The combination of these techniques leads to the ability to
solve instances with twice as many points as previously possible while
constrained to identical computational resources. A comprehensive experimental
study is presented to show the impact of our design choices.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, submitted for publicatio
The number of edges of many faces in a line segment arrangement
We show that the maximum number of edges bounding m faces in an arrangement of n line segments in the plane is O(m2/3n2/3 +nα(n)+n log m). This improves a previous upper bound of Edelsbrunner et al. [EGS] and almost matches the best known lower bound which is Ω(m2/3n2/3 + nα(n)). In addition, we show that the number of edges bounding any m faces in an arrangement of n line segments with a total of t intersecting pairs is O(m 2/3 t 1/3 + nα ( t n Ω(m 2/3 t 1/3 + nα ( t n}), almost matching the lower bound of)) demonstrated in this paper.)+nmin{log m,log t