A covering path for a finite set P of points in the plane is a polygonal path such that every point of P lies on a segment of the path. The vertices of the path need not be at points of P. A covering path is plane if its segments do not cross each other. Let π(n) be the minimum number such that every set of n points in the plane admits a plane covering path with at most π(n) segments. We prove that π(n) ≤ ⌈6n/7⌉. This improves the previous best-known upper bound of ⌈21n/22⌉, due to Biniaz (SoCG 2023). Our proof is constructive and yields a simple O(n log n)-time algorithm for computing a plane covering path.

The presence of obstacles has a significant impact on distance computation, motion-planning, and visibility. These problems have been studied extensively in the planar setting, while our understanding of these problems in 3- and higher-dimensional spaces is still rudimentary. In this paper, we study the impact of different types of obstacles on the induced geodesic metric in 3-dimensional Euclidean space. We say that a finite metric space (X, dist_X) is approximately realizable by a collection 𝒯 of obstacles in ℝ³ if for any ε > 0 it can be embedded into (ℝ³⧵⋃_{T∈𝒯} T, dist_𝒯) with worst-case multiplicative distortion 1+ε, where dist_𝒯 denotes the geodesic distance in the free space induced by 𝒯. We focus on three key geometric properties of obstacles -convexity, disjointness, and fatness- and examine how dropping each one of them affects the existence of such embeddings. Our main result concerns dropping the fatness property: we demonstrate that any finite metric space is realizable with 1+ε worst-case multiplicative distortion using a collection of convex and pairwise disjoint obstacles in ℝ³, even if the obstacles are congruent and equilateral triangles. Based on the same construction, we can also show that if we require fatness but drop any of the other two properties instead, then we can still approximately realize any finite metric space. Our results have important implications on the approximability of tsp with obstacles, a natural variant of tsp introduced recently by Alkema et al. (ESA 2022). Specifically, we use the recent results of Banerjee et al. on tsp in doubling spaces (FOCS 2024) and of Chew et al. on distances among obstacles (Inf. Process. Lett. 2002) to show that tsp with obstacles admits a PTAS if the obstacles are convex, fat, and pairwise disjoint. If any of these three properties is dropped, then our results, combined with the APX-hardness of Metric tsp, demonstrate that tsp with obstacles is APX-hard.

Abstract Let d be a (well-behaved) shortest-path metric defined on a path-connected subset of $$\mathbb {R}^2$$ and let $$\mathcal {D}=\{D_1,\ldots,D_n\}$$ be a set of geodesic disks with respect to the metric d. We prove that $$\mathcal {G}^{\times }(\mathcal {D})$$ , the intersection graph of the disks in $$\mathcal {D}$$ , has a clique-based separator consisting of $$O(n^{3/4+\varepsilon })$$ cliques. This significantly extends the class of objects whose intersection graphs have small clique-based separators. Our clique-based separator yields an algorithm for q-Coloring that runs in time $$2^{O(n^{3/4+\varepsilon })}$$ , assuming the boundaries of the disks $$D_i$$ can be computed in polynomial time. We also use our clique-based separator to obtain a simple, efficient, and almost exact distance oracle for intersection graphs of geodesic disks. Our distance oracle uses $$O(n^{7/4+\varepsilon })$$ storage and can report the hop distance between any two nodes in $$\mathcal {G}^{\times }(\mathcal {D})$$ in $$O(n^{3/4+\varepsilon })$$ time, up to an additive error of one. So far, distance oracles with an additive error of one that use subquadratic storage and sublinear query time were not known for such general graph classes.

Given a set of n points in the Euclidean plane, the k-MinSumRadius problem asks to cover this point set using k disks with the objective of minimizing the sum of the radii of the disks. After a long line of research on related problems, it was finally discovered that this problem admits a polynomial time algorithm [GKKPV’12]; however, the running time of this algorithm is O(n881), and its relevance is thereby mostly of theoretical nature. A practically and structurally interesting special case of the k-MinSumRadius problem is that of small k. For the 2-MinSumRadius problem, a near-quadratic time algorithm with expected running time O(n2 log2 n log2 log n) was given over 30 years ago [Eppstein’92]. We present the first improvement of this result, namely, a near-linear time algorithm to compute the 2-MinSumRadius that runs in expected O(n log2 n log2 log n) time. We generalize this result to any constant dimension d, for which we give an O(n2−1/(⌈d/2⌉+1)+ε) time algorithm. Additionally, we give a near-quadratic time algorithm for 3-MinSumRadius in the plane that runs in expected O(n2 log2 n log2 log n) time. All of these algorithms rely on insights that uncover a surprisingly simple structure of optimal solutions: we can specify a linear number of lines out of which one separates one of the clusters from the remaining clusters in an optimal solution.

Let $d$ be a (well-behaved) shortest-path metric defined on a path-connected subset of $\mathbb{R}^2$ and let $\mathcal{D}=\{D_1,\ldots,D_n\}$ be a set of geodesic disks with respect to the metric $d$. We prove that $\mathcal{G}^{\times}(\mathcal{D})$, the intersection graph of the disks in $\mathcal{D}$, has a clique-based separator consisting of $O(n^{3/4+\varepsilon})$ cliques. This significantly extends the class of objects whose intersection graphs have small clique-based separators. Our clique-based separator yields an algorithm for $q$-COLORING that runs in time $2^{O(n^{3/4+\varepsilon})}$, assuming the boundaries of the disks $D_i$ can be computed in polynomial time. We also use our clique-based separator to obtain a simple, efficient, and almost exact distance oracle for intersection graphs of geodesic disks. Our distance oracle uses $O(n^{7/4+\varepsilon})$ storage and can report the hop distance between any two nodes in $\mathcal{G}^{\times}(\mathcal{D})$ in $O(n^{3/4+\varepsilon})$ time, up to an additive error of one. So far, distance oracles with an additive error of one that use subquadratic storage and sublinear query time were not known for such general graph classes.

Let $\mathcal{P}$ be a simple polygon with $m$ vertices and let $P$ be a set of $n$ points inside $\mathcal{P}$. We prove that there exists, for any $\varepsilon>0$, a set $\mathcal{C} \subset P$ of size $O(1/\varepsilon^2)$ such that the following holds: for any query point $q$ inside the polygon $\mathcal{P}$, the geodesic distance from $q$ to its furthest neighbor in $\mathcal{C}$ is at least $1-\varepsilon$ times the geodesic distance to its further neighbor in $P$. Thus the set $\mathcal{C}$ can be used for answering $\varepsilon$-approximate furthest-neighbor queries with a data structure whose storage requirement is independent of the size of $P$. The coreset can be constructed in $O\left(\frac{1}{\varepsilon} \left( n\log(1/\varepsilon) + (n+m)\log(n+m)\right) \right)$ time.

Abstract Let F be a set of n objects in the plane and let $$\mathcal {G}^{\times }(F)$$ G × ( F ) be its intersection graph. A balanced clique-based separator of $$\mathcal {G}^{\times }(F)$$ G × ( F ) is a set $$\mathcal {\mathcal {S}}$$ S consisting of cliques whose removal partitions $$\mathcal {G}^{\times }(F)$$ G × ( F ) into components of size at most $$\delta n$$ δ n , for some fixed constant $$\delta <1$$ δ < 1 . The weight of a clique-based separator is defined as $$\sum _{C\in \mathcal {\mathcal {S}}}\log (|C|+1)$$ ∑ C ∈ S log ( | C | + 1 ) . Recently De Berg et al. (SIAM J. Comput. 49: 1291-1331. 2020) proved that if S consists of convex fat objects, then $$\mathcal {G}^{\times }(F)$$ G × ( F ) admits a balanced clique-based separator of weight $$O(\sqrt{n})$$ O ( n ) . We extend this result in several directions, obtaining the following results. (i) Map graphs admit a balanced clique-based separator of weight $$O(\sqrt{n})$$ O ( n ) , which is tight in the worst case. (ii) Intersection graphs of pseudo-disks admit a balanced clique-based separator of weight $$O(n^{2/3}\log n)$$ O ( n 2 / 3 log n ) . If the pseudo-disks are polygonal and of total complexity O(n) then the weight of the separator improves to $$O(\sqrt{n}\log n)$$ O ( n log n ) . (iii) Intersection graphs of geodesic disks inside a simple polygon admit a balanced clique-based separator of weight $$O(n^{2/3}\log n)$$ O ( n 2 / 3 log n ) . (iv) Visibility-restricted unit-disk graphs in a polygonal domain with r reflex vertices admit a balanced clique-based separator of weight $$O(\sqrt{n}+r\log (n/r))$$ O ( n + r log ( n / r ) )

Let F be a set of n objects in the plane and let G ×(F) be its intersection graph. A balanced clique-based separator of G ×(F) is a set S consisting of cliques whose removal partitions G ×(F) into components of size at most δn, for some fixed constant δ < 1. The weight of a clique-based separator is defined as P C∈S log(|C| + 1). Recently De Berg et al. (SICOMP 2020) proved that if S consists of convex fat objects, then G ×(F) admits a balanced clique-based separator of weight O(√n). We extend this result in several directions, obtaining the following results. Map graphs admit a balanced clique-based separator of weight O(√n), which is tight in the worst case. Intersection graphs of pseudo-disks admit a balanced clique-based separator of weight O(n 2/3 log n). If the pseudo-disks are polygonal and of total complexity O(n) then the weight of the separator improves to O(√n log n). Intersection graphs of geodesic disks inside a simple polygon admit a balanced clique-based separator of weight O(n 2/3 log n). Visibility-restricted unit-disk graphs in a polygonal domain with r reflex vertices admit a balanced clique-based separator of weight O(√n + r log(n/r)), which is tight in the worst case. These results immediately imply sub-exponential algorithms for Maximum Independent Set (and, hence, Vertex Cover), for Feedback Vertex Set, and for q-Coloring for constant q in these graph classes.