Variants of the Busemann-Petty problem and of the Shephard problem

We provide an affirmative answer to a variant of the Busemann-Petty problem, proposed by V.~Milman: Let $K$ be a convex body in ${\mathbb R}^n$ and let $D$ be a compact subset of ${\mathbb R}^n$ such that, for some 1\ls k\ls n-1, |P_F(K)|\ls |D\cap F| for all $F\in G_{n,k}$, where $P_F(K)$ is the orthogonal projection of $K$ onto $F$ and $D\cap F$ is the intersection of $D$ with $F$. Then, |K|\ls |D|. We also provide estimates for the lower dimensional Busemann-Petty and Shephard problems, and we prove separation in the original Busemann-Petty problem

Restricted Invertibility and the Banach-Mazur distance to the cube

We prove a normalized version of the restricted invertibility principle obtained by Spielman-Srivastava. Applying this result, we get a new proof of the proportional Dvoretzky-Rogers factorization theorem recovering the best current estimate. As a consequence, we also recover the best known estimate for the Banach-Mazur distance to the cube: the distance of every n-dimensional normed space from \ell_{\infty}^n is at most (2n)^(5/6). Finally, using tools from the work of Batson-Spielman-Srivastava, we give a new proof for a theorem of Kashin-Tzafriri on the norm of restricted matrices.Comment: to appear in Mathematik

Lower bound for the maximal number of facets of a 0/1 polytope

We show that there exist 0/1 polytopes in R^n with as many as (cn / (log n)^2)^(n/2) facets (or more), where c>0 is an absolute constant.Comment: 19 page

A Novel Piecewise Linear Recursive Convolution Approach for Dispersive Media Using the Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Minimum Cell Connection in Line Segment Arrangements

We study the complexity of the following cell connection problems in segment arrangements. Given a set of straight-line segments in the plane and two points a and b in different cells of the induced arrangement: [(i)] compute the minimum number of segments one needs to remove so that there is a path connecting a to b that does not intersect any of the remaining segments; [(ii)] compute the minimum number of segments one needs to remove so that the arrangement induced by the remaining segments has a single cell. We show that problems (i) and (ii) are NP-hard and discuss some special, tractable cases. Most notably, we provide a near-linear-time algorithm for a variant of problem (i) where the path connecting a to b must stay inside a given polygon P with a constant number of holes, the segments are contained in P, and the endpoints of the segments are on the boundary of P. The approach for this latter result uses homotopy of paths to group the segments into clusters with the property that either all segments in a cluster or none participate in an optimal solution

QPTAS and Subexponential Algorithm for Maximum Clique on Disk Graphs

A (unit) disk graph is the intersection graph of closed (unit) disks in the plane. Almost three decades ago, an elegant polynomial-time algorithm was found for Maximum Clique on unit disk graphs [Clark, Colbourn, Johnson; Discrete Mathematics '90]. Since then, it has been an intriguing open question whether or not tractability can be extended to general disk graphs. We show the rather surprising structural result that a disjoint union of cycles is the complement of a disk graph if and only if at most one of those cycles is of odd length. From that, we derive the first QPTAS and subexponential algorithm running in time 2^{O~(n^{2/3})} for Maximum Clique on disk graphs. In stark contrast, Maximum Clique on intersection graphs of filled ellipses or filled triangles is unlikely to have such algorithms, even when the ellipses are close to unit disks. Indeed, we show that there is a constant ratio of approximation which cannot be attained even in time 2^{n^{1-epsilon}}, unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis fails