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Chaya Keller

Publications and source records attributed to Chaya Keller.

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Conflict-Free Coloring of String Graphs

Conflict-free coloring (in short, CF-coloring) of a graph $G = (V,E)$ is a coloring of $V$ such that the neighborhood of each vertex contains a vertex whose color differs from the color of any other vertex in that neighborhood. Bounds on CF-chromatic numbers have been studied both for general graphs and for intersection graphs of geometric shapes. In this paper we obtain such bounds for several classes of string graphs, i.e., intersection graphs of curves in the plane: (i) We provide a general upper bound of $O(χ(G)^2 \log n)$ on the CF-chromatic number of any string graph $G$ with $n$ vertices in terms of the classical chromatic number $χ(G)$. This result stands in contrast to general graphs where the CF-chromatic number can be $Ω(\sqrt{n})$ already for bipartite graphs. (ii) For some central classes of string graphs, the CF-chromatic number is as large as $Θ(\sqrt{n})$, which is the upper bound for any graph even in the non-geometric context. For several such classes (e.g., intersection graphs of frames) we prove a tight bound of $Θ(\log n)$ with respect to the notion of $k$-CF-coloring (in which the punctured neighborhood of each vertex contains a color that appears at most $k$ times), for a small constant $k$. (iii) We obtain a general upper bound on the $k$-CF-chromatic number of arbitrary hypergraphs: Any hypergraph with $m$ hyperedges can be $k$-CF colored with $\tilde{O}(m^{\frac{1}{k+1}})$ colors. This bound, which extends a bound of Pach and Tardos (2009), is tight for some string graphs, up to a logarithmic factor. (iv) Our fourth result concerns circle graphs in which coloring problems are motivated by VLSI designs. We prove a tight bound of $Θ(\log n)$ on the CF-chromatic number of circle graphs, and an upper bound of $O(\log^{3} n)$ for a wider class that contains circle graphs, namely, intersection graphs of grounded L-shapes.

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A new lower bound on Hadwiger-Debrunner numbers in the plane

A family of sets $F$ is said to satisfy the $(p,q)$ property if among any $p$ sets in $F$, some $q$ have a non-empty intersection. Hadwiger and Debrunner (1957) conjectured that for any $p \geq q \geq d+1$ there exists $c=c_d(p,q)$, such that any family of compact convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ that satisfies the $(p,q)$ property, can be pierced by at most $c$ points. In a celebrated result from 1992, Alon and Kleitman proved the conjecture. However, obtaining sharp bounds on $c_d(p,q)$, called `the Hadwiger-Debrunner numbers', is still a major open problem in discrete and computational geometry. The best currently known lower bound on the Hadwiger-Debrunner numbers in the plane is $c_2(p,q) = Ω( \frac{p}{q}\log(\frac{p}{q}))$ while the best known upper bound is $O(p^{(1.5+δ)(1+\frac{1}{q-2})})$. In this paper we improve the lower bound significantly by showing that $c_2(p,q) \geq p^{1+Ω(1/q)}$. Furthermore, the bound is obtained by a family of lines, and is tight for all families that have a bounded VC-dimension. Unlike previous bounds on the Hadwiger-Debrunner numbers which mainly used the weak epsilon-net theorem, our bound stems from a surprising connection of the $(p,q)$ problem to an old problem of Erdős on points in general position in the plane. We use a novel construction for the Erdős' problem, obtained recently by Balogh and Solymosi using the hypergraph container method, to get the lower bound on $c_2(p,3)$. We then generalize the bound to $c_2(p,q)$ for any $q \geq 3$.

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Blockers for simple Hamiltonian paths in convex geometric graphs of odd order

Let G be a complete convex geometric graph, and let F be a family of subgraphs of G. A blocker for F is a set of edges, of smallest possible size, that has an edge in common with every element of F. In [C. Keller and M. A. Perles, Blockers for simple Hamiltonian paths in convex geometric graphs of even order, Disc. Comput. Geom., 60(1) (2018), pp. 1-8] we gave an explicit description of all blockers for the family of simple (i.e., non-crossing) Hamiltonian paths (SHPs) in G in the `even' case |V(G)|=2m. It turned out that all the blockers are simple caterpillar trees of a certain class. In this paper we give an explicit description of all blockers for the family of SHPs in the `odd' case |V(G)|=2m-1. In this case, the structure of the blockers is more complex, and in particular, they are not necessarily simple. Correspondingly, the proof is more complicated.

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Blockers for Triangulations of a Convex Polygon and a Geometric Maker-Breaker Game

Let $G$ be a complete convex geometric graph whose vertex set $P$ forms a convex polygon $C$, and let $F$ be a family of subgraphs of $G$. A blocker for $F$ is a set of edges, of smallest possible size, that contains a common edge with every element of $F$. Previous works determined the blockers for various families $F$ of non-crossing subgraphs, including the families of all perfect matchings, all spanning trees, all Hamiltonian paths, etc. In this paper we present a complete characterization of the family $B$ of blockers for the family $T$ of triangulations of $C$. In particular, we show that $|B|=F_{2n-8}$, where $F_k$ is the $k$'th element in the Fibonacci sequence and $n=|P|$. We use our characterization to obtain a tight result on a geometric Maker-Breaker game in which the board is the set of diagonals of a convex $n$-gon $C$ and Maker seeks to occupy a triangulation of $C$. Namely, we show that in the $(1:1)$ triangulation game, Maker can ensure a win within $n-3$ moves, and that in the $(1:2)$ triangulation game, Breaker can ensure a win within $n-3$ moves. In particular, the threshold bias for the game is $2$.

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Reconstruction of the Path Graph

Let $P$ be a set of $n \geq 5$ points in convex position in the plane. The path graph $G(P)$ of $P$ is an abstract graph whose vertices are non-crossing spanning paths of $P$, such that two paths are adjacent if one can be obtained from the other by deleting an edge and adding another edge. We prove that the automorphism group of $G(P)$ is isomorphic to $D_{n}$, the dihedral group of order $2n$. The heart of the proof is an algorithm that first identifies the vertices of $G(P)$ that correspond to boundary paths of $P$, where the identification is unique up to an automorphism of $K(P)$ as a geometric graph, and then identifies (uniquely) all edges of each path represented by a vertex of $G(P)$. The complexity of the algorithm is $O(N \log N)$ where $N$ is the number of vertices of $G(P)$.

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From a $(p,2)$-Theorem to a Tight $(p,q)$-Theorem

A family $F$ of sets is said to satisfy the $(p,q)$-property if among any $p$ sets of $F$ some $q$ intersect. The celebrated $(p,q)$-theorem of Alon and Kleitman asserts that any family of compact convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ that satisfies the $(p,q)$-property for some $q \geq d+1$, can be pierced by a fixed number $f_d(p,q)$ of points. The minimum such piercing number is denoted by $HD_d(p,q)$. Already in 1957, Hadwiger and Debrunner showed that whenever $q>\frac{d-1}{d}p+1$ the piercing number is $HD_d(p,q)=p-q+1$; no exact values of $HD_d(p,q)$ were found ever since. While for an arbitrary family of compact convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$, $d \geq 2$, a $(p,2)$-property does not imply a bounded piercing number, such bounds were proved for numerous specific families. The best-studied among them is axis-parallel rectangles in the plane. Wegner and (independently) Dol'nikov used a $(p,2)$-theorem for axis-parallel rectangles to show that $HD_{\mathrm{rect}}(p,q)=p-q+1$ holds for all $q>\sqrt{2p}$. These are the only values of $q$ for which $HD_{\mathrm{rect}}(p,q)$ is known exactly. In this paper we present a general method which allows using a $(p,2)$-theorem as a bootstrapping to obtain a tight $(p,q)$-theorem, for families with Helly number 2, even without assuming that the sets in the family are convex or compact. To demonstrate the strength of this method, we obtain a significant improvement of an over 50 year old result by Wegner and Dol'nikov. Namely, we show that $HD_{\mathrm{d-box}}(p,q)=p-q+1$ holds for all $q > c' \log^{d-1} p$, and in particular, $HD_{\mathrm{rect}}(p,q)=p-q+1$ holds for all $q \geq 7 \log_2 p$ (compared to $q \geq \sqrt{2p}$ of Wegner and Dol'nikov). In addition, for several classes of families, we present improved $(p,2)$-theorems, some of which can be used as a bootstrapping to obtain tight $(p,q)$-theorems.

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Conflict-Free Coloring of Intersection Graphs of Geometric Objects

In FOCS'2002, Even et al. introduced and studied the notion of conflict-free colorings of geometrically defined hypergraphs. They motivated it by frequency assignment problems in cellular networks. This notion has been extensively studied since then. A conflict-free coloring of a graph is a coloring of its vertices such that the neighborhood (pointed or closed) of each vertex contains a vertex whose color differs from the colors of all other vertices in that neighborhood. In this paper we study conflict-colorings of intersection graphs of geometric objects. We show that any intersection graph of n pseudo-discs in the plane admits a conflict-free coloring with O(\log n) colors, with respect to both closed and pointed neighborhoods. We also show that the latter bound is asymptotically sharp. Using our methods, we also obtain a strengthening of the two main results of Even et al. which we believe is of independent interest. In particular, in view of the original motivation to study such colorings, this strengthening suggests further applications to frequency assignment in wireless networks. Finally, we present bounds on the number of colors needed for conflict-free colorings of other classes of intersection graphs, including intersection graphs of axis-parallel rectangles and of ρ-fat objects in the plane.

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On Piercing Numbers of Families Satisfying the $(p,q)_r$ Property

The Hadwiger-Debrunner number $HD_d(p,q)$ is the minimal size of a piercing set that can always be guaranteed for a family of compact convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ that satisfies the $(p,q)$ property. Hadwiger and Debrunner showed that $HD_d(p,q) \geq p-q+1$ for all $q$, and equality is attained for $q > \frac{d-1}{d}p +1$. Almost tight upper bounds for $HD_d(p,q)$ for a `sufficiently large' $q$ were obtained recently using an enhancement of the celebrated Alon-Kleitman theorem, but no sharp upper bounds for a general $q$ are known. In [L. Montejano and P. Soberón, Piercing numbers for balanced and unbalanced families, Disc. Comput. Geom., 45(2) (2011), pp. 358-364], Montejano and Soberón defined a refinement of the $(p,q)$ property: $F$ satisfies the $(p,q)_r$ property if among any $p$ elements of $F$, at least $r$ of the $q$-tuples intersect. They showed that $HD_d(p,q)_r \leq p-q+1$ holds for all $r>{{p}\choose{q}}-{{p+1-d}\choose{q+1-d}}$; however, this is far from being tight. In this paper we present improved asymptotic upper bounds on $HD_d(p,q)_r$ which hold when only a tiny portion of the $q$-tuples intersect. In particular, we show that for $p,q$ sufficiently large, $HD_d(p,q)_r \leq p-q+1$ holds with $r = \frac{1}{p^{\frac{q}{2d}}}{{p}\choose{q}}$. Our bound misses the known lower bound for the same piercing number by a factor of less than $pq^d$. Our results use Kalai's Upper Bound Theorem for convex sets, along with the Hadwiger-Debrunner theorem and the recent improved upper bound on $HD_d(p,q)$ mentioned above.

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Improved bounds on the Hadwiger-Debrunner numbers

Let $HD_d(p,q)$ denote the minimal size of a transversal that can always be guaranteed for a family of compact convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ which satisfy the $(p,q)$-property ($p \geq q \geq d+1$). In a celebrated proof of the Hadwiger-Debrunner conjecture, Alon and Kleitman proved that $HD_d(p,q)$ exists for all $p \geq q \geq d+1$. Specifically, they prove that $HD_d(p,d+1)$ is $\tilde{O}(p^{d^2+d})$. We present several improved bounds: (i) For any $q \geq d+1$, $HD_d(p,q) = \tilde{O}(p^{d \left(\frac{q-1}{q-d}\right)})$. (ii) For $q \geq \log p$, $HD_d(p,q) = \tilde{O}(p+(p/q)^d)$. (iii) For every $ε> 0$ there exists a $p_0 = p_0(ε)$ such that for every $p \geq p_0$ and for every $q \geq p^{\frac{d-1}{d}+ε}$ we have: $p-q+1 \leq HD_d(p,q) \leq p-q+2$. The latter is the first near tight estimate of $HD_d(p,q)$ for an extended range of values of $(p,q)$ since the 1957 Hadwiger-Debrunner theorem. We also prove a $(p,2)$-theorem for families in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with union complexity below a specific quadratic bound. Based on this, we introduce a polynomial time constant factor approximation algorithm for MAX-CLIQUE of intersection graphs of convex sets satisfying this property.

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Blockers for simple Hamiltonian paths in convex geometric graphs of even order

Let G be a complete convex geometric graph on 2m vertices, and let F be a family of subgraphs of G. A blocker for F is a set of edges, of smallest possible size, that meets every element of F. In [C. Keller and M. A. Perles, On the smallest sets blocking simple perfect matchings in a convex geometric graph, Israel J. Math. 187 (2012), pp. 465-484], we gave an explicit description of all blockers for the family of simple perfect matchings (SPMs) of G. In this paper we show that the family of simple Hamiltonian paths (SHPs) in G has exactly the same blockers as the family of SPMs. Our argument is rather short, and provides a much simpler proof of the result of [KP12].

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On Convex Geometric Graphs with no $k+1$ Pairwise Disjoint Edges

A well-known result of Kupitz from 1982 asserts that the maximal number of edges in a convex geometric graph (CGG) on $n$ vertices that does not contain $k+1$ pairwise disjoint edges is $kn$ (provided $n>2k$). For $k=1$ and $k=n/2-1$, the extremal examples are completely characterized. For all other values of $k$, the structure of the extremal examples is far from known: their total number is unknown, and only a few classes of examples were presented, that are almost symmetric, consisting roughly of the $kn$ "longest possible" edges of $CK(n)$, the complete CGG of order $n$. In order to understand further the structure of the extremal examples, we present a class of extremal examples that lie at the other end of the spectrum. Namely, we break the symmetry by requiring that, in addition, the graph admit an independent set that consists of $q$ consecutive vertices on the boundary of the convex hull. We show that such graphs exist as long as $q \leq n-2k$ and that this value of $q$ is optimal. We generalize our discussion to the following question: what is the maximal possible number $f(n,k,q)$ of edges in a CGG on $n$ vertices that does not contain $k+1$ pairwise disjoint edges, and, in addition, admits an independent set that consists of $q$ consecutive vertices on the boundary of the convex hull? We provide a complete answer to this question, determining $f(n,k,q)$ for all relevant values of $n,k$ and $q$.

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Reconstruction of the geometric structure of a set of points in the plane from its geometric tree graph

Let P be a finite set of points in general position in the plane. The structure of the complete graph K(P) as a geometric graph includes, for any pair [a,b],[c,d] of vertex-disjoint edges, the information whether they cross or not. The simple (i.e., non-crossing) spanning trees (SSTs) of K(P) are the vertices of the so-called Geometric Tree Graph of P, G(P). Two such vertices are adjacent in G(P) if they differ in exactly two edges, i.e., if one can be obtained from the other by deleting an edge and adding another edge. In this paper we show how to reconstruct from G(P) (regarded as an abstract graph) the structure of K(P) as a geometric graph. We first identify within G(P) the vertices that correspond to spanning stars. Then we regard each star S(z) with center z as the representative in G(P) of the vertex z of K(P). (This correspondence is determined only up to an automorphism of K(P) as a geometric graph.) Finally we determine for any four distinct stars S(a), S(b), S(c), and S(d), by looking at their relative positions in G(P), whether the corresponding segments cross.

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Blockers for non-crossing spanning trees in complete geometric graphs

In this paper we present a complete characterization of the smallest sets that block all the simple spanning trees (SSTs) in a complete geometric graph. We also show that if a subgraph is a blocker for all SSTs of diameter at most 4, then it must block all simple spanning subgraphs, and in particular, all SSTs. For convex geometric graphs, we obtain an even stronger result: being a blocker for all SSTs of diameter at most 3 is already sufficient for blocking all simple spanning subgraphs.

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Characterization of co-blockers for simple perfect matchings in a convex geometric graph

Consider the complete convex geometric graph on $2m$ vertices, $CGG(2m)$, i.e., the set of all boundary edges and diagonals of a planar convex $2m$-gon $P$. In [C. Keller and M. Perles, On the Smallest Sets Blocking Simple Perfect Matchings in a Convex Geometric Graph], the smallest sets of edges that meet all the simple perfect matchings (SPMs) in $CGG(2m)$ (called "blockers") are characterized, and it is shown that all these sets are caterpillar graphs with a special structure, and that their total number is $m \cdot 2^{m-1}$. In this paper we characterize the co-blockers for SPMs in $CGG(2m)$, that is, the smallest sets of edges that meet all the blockers. We show that the co-blockers are exactly those perfect matchings $M$ in $CGG(2m)$ where all edges are of odd order, and two edges of $M$ that emanate from two adjacent vertices of $P$ never cross. In particular, while the number of SPMs and the number of blockers grow exponentially with $m$, the number of co-blockers grows super-exponentially.

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