On embedding triconnected cubic graphs on point sets

This paper starts the investigation of a constrained version of the point-set embed-dability problem. Let G = (V,E) be a planar graph with n vertices, G′ = (V′,E′) a subgraph of G, and S a set of n distinct points in the plane. We study the problem of computing a point-set embedding of G on S subject to the constraint that G′ is drawn with straight-line edges. Different drawing algorithms are presented that guarantee small curve complexity of the resulting drawing, i.e. a small number of bends per edge. It is proved that: • If G′ is an outerplanar graph and S is any set of points in convex position, a point-set embedding of G on S can be computed such that the edges of E\E′ have at most 4 bends each. • If S is any set of points in general position and G′ is a face of G or if it is a simple path, the curve complexity of the edges of E\E′ is at most 8. • If S is in general position and G′ is a set of k disjoint paths, the curve complexity of the edges of E \ E′ is O(2k).

The paper bounds the combinatorial complexity of the Voronoi diagram of a set of points under certain polyhedral distance functions. Specifically, if S is a set of n points in general position in R d , the maximum complexity of its Voronoi diagram under the L ∞ metric, and also under a simplicial distance function, are both shown to be \(\Theta(n^{\lceil d/2 \rceil})\) . The upper bound for the case of the L ∞ metric follows from a new upper bound, also proved in this paper, on the maximum complexity of the union of n axis-parallel hypercubes in R d . This complexity is \(\Theta(n^{\left\lceil d/2 \right\rceil})\) , for d ≥ 1 , and it improves to \(\Theta(n^{\left\lfloor d/2 \right\rfloor})\) , for d ≥ 2 , if all the hypercubes have the same size. Under the L 1 metric, the maximum complexity of the Voronoi diagram of a set of n points in general position in R 3 is shown to be \(\Theta(n^2)\) . We also show that the general position assumption is essential, and give examples where the complexity of the diagram increases significantly when the points are in degenerate configurations. (This increase does not occur with an appropriate modification of the diagram definition.) Finally, on-line algorithms are proposed for computing the Voronoi diagram of n points in Rd under a simplicial or L ∞ distance function. Their expected randomized complexities are \(O(n \log n + n ^{\left\lceil d/2 \right\rceil})\) for simplicial diagrams and \(O(n ^{\left\lceil d/2 \right\rceil} \log ^{d-1} n)\) for L ∞ -diagrams.

We study biplane graphs drawn on a finite point set \(S\) in the plane in general position. This is the family of geometric graphs whose vertex set is \(S\) and which can be decomposed into two plane graphs. We show that every sufficiently large point set admits a 5-connected biplane graph and that there are arbitrarily large point sets that do not admit any 6-connected biplane graph. Furthermore, we show that every plane graph (other than a wheel or a fan) can be augmented into a 4-connected biplane graph. However, there are arbitrarily large plane graphs that cannot be augmented to a 5-connected biplane graph by adding pairwise noncrossing edges.

Abstract. Erdös asked whether every large enough set of points in general position in the plane contains six points that form a convex 6-gon without any points from the set in its interior. In this note we show how a set of 29 points was found that contains no empty convex 6-gon. To this end a fast incremental algorithm for finding such 6-gons was designed and implemented and a heuristic search approach was used to find promising sets. The experiments also led to two observations that might be useful in proving that large sets always contain an empty convex 6-gon.

Obstacle representations of graphs have been investigated quite intensely over the last few years. We focus on graphs that can be represented by a single obstacle. Given a (topologically open) non-self-intersecting polygon C and a finite set P of points in general position in the complement of C, the visibility graph \(G_C(P)\) has a vertex for each point in P and an edge pq for any two points p and q in P that can see each other, that is, \(\overline{pq} \cap C=\emptyset \). We draw \(G_C(P)\) straight-line and call this a visibility drawing. Given a graph G, we want to compute an obstacle representation of G, that is, an obstacle C and a set of points P such that \(G=G_C(P)\). The complexity of this problem is open, even when the points are exactly the vertices of a simple polygon and the obstacle is the complement of the polygon—the simple-polygon visibility graph problem.

A geometric graph is a graph embedded in the plane in such a way that vertices correspond to points in general position and edges correspond to segments connecting the appropriate points. A noncrossing Hamiltonian path in a geometric graph is a Hamiltonian path which does not contain any intersecting pair of edges. In the paper, we study a problem asked by Micha Perles: Determine a function h, where h(n) is the largest number k such that when we remove arbitrary set of k edges from a complete geometric graph on n vertices, the resulting graph still has a noncrossing Hamiltonian path. We prove that h(n) = Ω(√n). We also determine the function exactly in case when the removed edges form a star or a matching, and give asymptotically tight bounds in case they form a clique.

A geometric graph is a graph drawn in the plane so that the vertices are represented by points in general position, the edges are represented by straight line segments connecting the corresponding points.

The classical Cover results on linear separability of points in Rd are a milestone in neural network theory. Nevertheless they are not valid for digital input networks because in this case the points are not, in general position. vertices ofa d-dimensional hypercube. I show here that for large d all Cover findings can be extended to this case. It is also shown that for n < O((d + I)*) the number of linear separations of n random hypercube vertices tends to that of n points in general position.

Empty rainbow triangles in k-colored point sets

Let S be a finite set of n+3 points in general position in the plane, with 3 extreme points and n interior points. We consider triangulations drawn uniformly at random from the set of all triangulations of S, and investigate the expected number, vi, of interior points of degree i in such a triangulation. We provide bounds that are linear in n on these numbers. In particular, n/43≤v3≤ (2n+3)/5.Moreover, we relate these results to the question about the maximum and minimum possible number of triangulations in such a set S, and show that the number of triangulations of any set of n points in the plane is at most 43n, thereby improving on a previous bound by Santos and Seidel.

Lower bounds on the maximum number of non-crossing acyclic graphs

In this paper we give a lower bound for the Erd\H os–Szekeres number in higher dimensions. Namely, in two different ways we construct, for every $n>d\ge 2$, a configuration of $n$ points in general position in $\R^d$ containing at most $c_d(\log n)^{d-1}$ points in convex position. (Points in $\R^d$ are in convex position if none of them lies in the convex hull of the others.)

Let P be a set of points in the plane and assume that P is in general position. A triangulation of P is a maximal non-crossing geometric graph with vertex set P. All bounded faces of a triangulation are triangles (that's why we call them triangulation), the unbounded face is the outside of the convex hull of P. Triangulations play a prominent role in many applicable and applied disciplines like computational geometry, computer graphics and numerical modeling. In this chapter we discuss combinatorial and geometrical properties of triangulations and of the flip-graph on the set of all triangulations of a point set P.

Kontsevich's formula is a recursion that calculates the number of rational degree $d$ curves in $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{C}}^2$ passing through $3d-1$ points in general position. Kontsevich proved it by considering curves that satisfy extra conditions besides the given point conditions. These crucial extra conditions are two line conditions and a condition called cross-ratio.&#x0D; This paper addresses the question whether there is a general Kontsevich's formula which holds for more than one cross-ratio. Using tropical geometry, we obtain such a recursive formula. For that, we use a correspondence theorem of Tyomkin that relates the algebro-geometric numbers in question to tropical ones. It turns out that the general tropical Kontsevich's formula we obtain is capable of not only computing the algebro-geometric numbers we are looking for, but also of computing further tropical numbers for which there is no correspondence theorem yet.&#x0D; We show that our recursive general Kontsevich's formula implies the original Kontsevich's formula and that the initial values are the numbers Kontsevich's fomula provides and purely combinatorial numbers, so-called cross-ratio multiplicities.

A linear system of plane curves satisfying multiplicity conditions at points in general position is called special if the dimension is larger than the expected dimension. A (−1) curve is an irreducible curve with self intersection −1 and genus zero. The Segre–Harbourne–Hirschowitz Conjecture states that if a linear system is special then a multiple of some fixed (−1) curve is contained in every curve of the linear system. This conjecture is proven for linear systems with multiplicity four at all but one of the points.