\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
