On Covering a Graph Optimally with Induced Subgraphs

We consider the problem of covering a graph with a given number of induced subgraphs so that the maximum number of vertices in each subgraph is minimized. We prove NP-completeness of the problem, prove lower bounds, and give approximation algorithms for certain graph classes.Comment: 9 page

Cache-Oblivious Selection in Sorted X+Y Matrices

Let X[0..n-1] and Y[0..m-1] be two sorted arrays, and define the mxn matrix A by A[j][i]=X[i]+Y[j]. Frederickson and Johnson gave an efficient algorithm for selecting the k-th smallest element from A. We show how to make this algorithm IO-efficient. Our cache-oblivious algorithm performs O((m+n)/B) IOs, where B is the block size of memory transfers

Pants Decomposition of the Punctured Plane

A pants decomposition of an orientable surface S is a collection of simple cycles that partition S into pants, i.e., surfaces of genus zero with three boundary cycles. Given a set P of n points in the plane, we consider the problem of computing a pants decomposition of the surface S which is the plane minus P, of minimum total length. We give a polynomial-time approximation scheme using Mitchell's guillotine rectilinear subdivisions. We give a quartic-time algorithm to compute the shortest pants decomposition of S when the cycles are restricted to be axis-aligned boxes, and a quadratic-time algorithm when all the points lie on a line; both exact algorithms use dynamic programming with Yao's speedup.Comment: 5 pages, 1 grayscale figur