Two-Page Book Embeddings of 4-Planar Graphs

Back in the Eighties, Heath showed that every 3-planar graph is subhamiltonian and asked whether this result can be extended to a class of graphs of degree greater than three. In this paper we affirmatively answer this question for the class of 4-planar graphs. Our contribution consists of two algorithms: The first one is limited to triconnected graphs, but runs in linear time and uses existing methods for computing hamiltonian cycles in planar graphs. The second one, which solves the general case of the problem, is a quadratic-time algorithm based on the book-embedding viewpoint of the problem.Comment: 21 pages, 16 Figures. A shorter version is to appear at STACS 201

Efficient Generation of Geographically Accurate Transit Maps

We present LOOM (Line-Ordering Optimized Maps), a fully automatic generator of geographically accurate transit maps. The input to LOOM is data about the lines of a given transit network, namely for each line, the sequence of stations it serves and the geographical course the vehicles of this line take. We parse this data from GTFS, the prevailing standard for public transit data. LOOM proceeds in three stages: (1) construct a so-called line graph, where edges correspond to segments of the network with the same set of lines following the same course; (2) construct an ILP that yields a line ordering for each edge which minimizes the total number of line crossings and line separations; (3) based on the line graph and the ILP solution, draw the map. As a naive ILP formulation is too demanding, we derive a new custom-tailored formulation which requires significantly fewer constraints. Furthermore, we present engineering techniques which use structural properties of the line graph to further reduce the ILP size. For the subway network of New York, we can reduce the number of constraints from 229,000 in the naive ILP formulation to about 4,500 with our techniques, enabling solution times of less than a second. Since our maps respect the geography of the transit network, they can be used for tiles and overlays in typical map services. Previous research work either did not take the geographical course of the lines into account, or was concerned with schematic maps without optimizing line crossings or line separations.Comment: 7 page

On Optimal 2- and 3-Planar Graphs

A graph is $k$-planar if it can be drawn in the plane such that no edge is crossed more than $k$ times. While for $k=1$, optimal $1$-planar graphs, i.e., those with $n$ vertices and exactly $4n-8$ edges, have been completely characterized, this has not been the case for $k \geq 2$. For $k=2,3$ and $4$, upper bounds on the edge density have been developed for the case of simple graphs by Pach and T\'oth, Pach et al. and Ackerman, which have been used to improve the well-known "Crossing Lemma". Recently, we proved that these bounds also apply to non-simple $2$- and $3$-planar graphs without homotopic parallel edges and self-loops. In this paper, we completely characterize optimal $2$- and $3$-planar graphs, i.e., those that achieve the aforementioned upper bounds. We prove that they have a remarkably simple regular structure, although they might be non-simple. The new characterization allows us to develop notable insights concerning new inclusion relationships with other graph classes

Graph Product Structure for h-Framed Graphs

Graph product structure theory expresses certain graphs as subgraphs of the strong product of much simpler graphs. In particular, an elegant formulation for the corresponding structural theorems involves the strong product of a path and of a bounded treewidth graph, and allows to lift combinatorial results for bounded treewidth graphs to graph classes for which the product structure holds, such as to planar graphs [Dujmovi? et al., J. ACM, 67(4), 22:1-38, 2020]. In this paper, we join the search for extensions of this powerful tool beyond planarity by considering the h-framed graphs, a graph class that includes 1-planar, optimal 2-planar, and k-map graphs (for appropriate values of h). We establish a graph product structure theorem for h-framed graphs stating that the graphs in this class are subgraphs of the strong product of a path, of a planar graph of treewidth at most 3, and of a clique of size 3? h/2 ?+? h/3 ?-1. This allows us to improve over the previous structural theorems for 1-planar and k-map graphs. Our results constitute significant progress over the previous bounds on the queue number, non-repetitive chromatic number, and p-centered chromatic number of these graph classes, e.g., we lower the currently best upper bound on the queue number of 1-planar graphs and k-map graphs from 115 to 82 and from ? 33/2(k+3 ? k/2? -3)? to ? 33/2 (3? k/2 ?+? k/3 ?-1) ?, respectively. We also employ the product structure machinery to improve the current upper bounds on the twin-width of 1-planar graphs from O(1) to 80. All our structural results are constructive and yield efficient algorithms to obtain the corresponding decompositions

Algorithms and Insights for RaceTrack

We discuss algorithmic issues on the well-known paper-and-pencil game RaceTrack. On a very simple track called Indianapolis, we introduce the problem and simple approaches, that will be gradually refined. We present and experimentally evaluate efficient algorithms for single player scenarios. We also consider a variant where the parts of the track are known as soon as they become visible during the race