arXiv subjects

Csaba D. Tóth

Publications and source records attributed to Csaba D. Tóth.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Reconfiguration of Connected Graph Partitions

Motivated by recent computational models for redistricting and detection of gerrymandering, we study the following problem on graph partitions. Given a graph $G$ and an integer $k\geq 1$, a $k$-district map of $G$ is a partition of $V(G)$ into $k$ nonempty subsets, called districts, each of which induces a connected subgraph of $G$. A switch is an operation that modifies a $k$-district map by reassigning a subset of vertices from one district to an adjacent district; a 1-switch is a switch that moves a single vertex. We study the connectivity of the configuration space of all $k$-district maps of a graph $G$ under 1-switch operations. We give a combinatorial characterization for the connectedness of this space that can be tested efficiently. We prove that it is NP-complete to decide whether there exists a sequence of 1-switches that takes a given $k$-district map into another; and NP-hard to find the shortest such sequence (even if a sequence of polynomial length is known to exist). We also present efficient algorithms for computing a sequence of 1-switches that takes a given $k$-district map into another when the space is connected, and show that these algorithms perform a worst-case optimal number of switches up to constant factors.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2026

Improved Euclidean Shallow Light Trees

For parameters $α,β\geq 1$, a spanning tree $T$ of a weighted graph $G$ rooted at a designated vertex $r$ is called an $(α,β)$-shallow-light tree (SLT) if (i) for every vertex $v$, $d_T(r,v) \leq α\cdot d_G(r,v)$ (root-stretch $α$), and (ii) $w(T) \leq β\cdot w(\mathsf{MST})$ (lightness $β$). The pioneering work of Khuller, Raghavachari, and Young (SODA 1993) constructed $\left(1+ε, \tfrac{2}ε+1\right)$-SLTs for general weighted graphs, and proved that this tradeoff between root-stretch and lightness is tight even for series-parallel graphs. They further asked whether even a slight improvement, namely reducing the lightness to $\tfrac{2-c}ε$ for any constant $c>0$, is possible in the Euclidean plane. We resolve this longstanding question in the affirmative. Specifically, we show that every Euclidean instance admits an SLT with root-stretch $1+ε$ and lightness at most $\left(\frac{5}{3} + o_ε(1)\right) \cdot \frac{1}ε$, thereby significantly improving upon the longstanding $2/ε$ barrier. As our second main result, we provide a construction of SLTs in the Euclidean plane, with root stretch $1+ε$ and lightness at most $\left(\frac{2π}{\sqrt{4π^2+1}}+o_ε(1)\right)\frac{1}ε \approx (0.987+o_ε(1))\frac{1}ε$. Notably, this reduces the leading $2/ε$ term in the lightness bound by more than a factor of two, and comes quite close to the lower bound of $\left(\frac{2π}{2π+1} +o_ε(1))\right) \cdot \frac{1}ε \approx (0.862 +o_ε(1))\frac{1}ε$ by Elkin and Solomon (FOCS 2011).

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Geometric $(1+\varepsilon)$-Spanners with Few Crossings

For $n$ points in the plane and an $\varepsilon>0$, we construct a $(1+\varepsilon)$-spanner with $O(n/\varepsilon)$ edges in which every edge has $\tilde{O}(1/\varepsilon^3)$ crossings, hence the total number of crossings is $\tilde{O}(n/\varepsilon^4)$, furthermore the ratio between the lengths of any two crossing edges is $O(1/\varepsilon^2)$. Our spanner construction substantially improves on the previous upper bound for the number of crossings in a $(1+\varepsilon)$-spanner, and it is the first spanner construction that ensures $O(1)$ crossings per edge for any constant $\varepsilon>0$. In contrast, we construct: $n$ points in the plane for which every $(1+\varepsilon)$-spanner has $Ω(n/\varepsilon^3)$ crossings, $n$ points for which every $(1+\varepsilon)$-spanner has an edge with $Ω(1/\varepsilon^{5/2})$ crossings, and 4 points for which every $(1+\varepsilon)$-spanner contains two crossing edges where one is $Ω(1/\varepsilon)$ times longer than the other.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Online Geometric Packing through Online TSP Scheduling

We consider the problem of online packing of convex polygons into a strip by translations. While online algorithms with a constant competitive ratio have been known for rectangles for decades [Baker and Schwarz, SICOMP 1983], the current best algorithm for convex polygons has competitive ratio $O(n^{\log_2 3-1}\log n) = O(n^{0.59})$, where $n$ is the number of polygons. This algorithm was described by Aamand, Abrahamsen, Beretta, and Kleist [SODA 2023], who also proved a lower bound of $Ω(\sqrt{\log n/\log\log n})$ on the competitive ratio of any algorithm. Their lower bound is obtained via a reduction from \emph{online sorting}, a problem introduced in the same paper, for which they established a lower bound on the competitive ratio. We introduce a new, natural online problem that we call online TSP scheduling. Here, points $x_1,\ldots,x_n$ arrive online from a metric space $(M,d)$, and upon arrival each $x_i$ must be assigned a visit time $p_i\in[0,\infty)$ satisfying $|p_i-p_j|\ge d(x_i,x_j)$ for all $j<i$. The cost of the schedule is $\max_i p_i$. We present an $O(\log^2 n)$-competitive algorithm for online TSP scheduling, and show how this implies an $O(\log^2 n)$-competitive algorithm for online translational strip packing of convex polygons. We also prove that the same competitive ratio is achievable for other translational packing problems, including online packing of $d$-dimensional unit hyperdisks in $\mathbb R^{d+1}$, whose offline version was studied by Alt, Cabello, Cheong, Park, and Seiferth [Comp. Geom. 2026]. Our algorithm for online TSP scheduling builds on a recent breakthrough for online sorting by Azar, Panigrahi, and Vardi [SODA 2026]. We thus show that the connection between packing and online sorting can be used not only for lower bounds, but also for algorithms.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Bichromatic Geometric Spanners

For an edge-weighted graph $G=(V,E)$ and a stretch parameter $t\geq 1$, a $t$-spanner is a subgraph $H\subseteq G$ such that the shortest path distances in $G$ and $H$ satisfy $δ_H(u,v)\leq t\, δ_G(u,v)$ for all $u,v\in V$. In metric spanners, $V$ is a finite metric space, and $G$ is the complete graph with edge weights corresponding to the distances between the endpoints. When $G$ is the complete graph on $n$ points in the plane, $O(n)$-size $t$-spanners are possible for any $t>1$: For every $\varepsilon>0$, there is an $(1+\varepsilon)$-spanner with $O(n/\varepsilon)$ edges (i.e., the stretch can be arbitrarily close to 1). When $G=K(R,B)$ is the complete bipartite graph on $n$ bichromatic points in the plane, in general, no spanner construction can guarantee stretch $t<3$ with $o(n^2)$ edges. Bose et al.~(SICOMP 2009) constructed a $(3+\varepsilon)$-spanner with $O(n\log n)$ edges for any constant $\varepsilon>0$. Our main result is a new construction for a $(3+\varepsilon)$-spanner with $O(\sqrt{1/\varepsilon}\cdot n)$ edges. Eliminating the $O(\log n)$ factor resolves a problem left open for more than 17 years, and raises a new research problem about optimizing the dependence on $\varepsilon$. We also study spanners for $G=K(R,B)$ on $n$ bichromatic points on the real line: In this case, we show that the MST of $K(R,B)$ is a 7-spanner, and we construct a 3-spanner with at most $2n-3$ edges.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Rerouting Curves on Surfaces

We study the problem of reconfiguring a crossing-free embedding of a graph on a surface, with edges represented as curves, into another crossing-free embedding of the same graph on the same surface with the same fixed vertex positions. In this process, we reroute one edge at a time while maintaining crossing-free intermediate embeddings. This problem was introduced by Ito et al. [TALG 2025], who showed that even if the graph is a matching of two edges, reconfiguration is not always possible in the plane, but is always possible on the torus. For matchings of two or more edges, they gave a necessary and sufficient condition for reconfigurable embeddings in the plane, but not on the torus. Our main result is that for matchings, trees and forests, reconfiguration is always possible on the torus, and consequently, on any orientable surface of genus at least one. In addition, we provide sufficient conditions for reconfiguration on orientable surfaces of genus at least one and in the projective plane. For more general graphs, we show that reconfiguration is not always possible.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Closest Pair Queries in Vertical Slabs and Tight Bounds on the Number of Possible Answers

Let $S$ be a set of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$, where $d \geq 2$ is a constant, and let $H_1,H_2,\ldots,H_{m+1}$ be a sequence of vertical hyperplanes that are sorted by their first coordinates, such that exactly $n/m$ points of $S$ are between any two successive hyperplanes. Let $A(S,m)$ be the set of different closest pairs in the ${{m+1} \choose 2}$ vertical slabs that are bounded by $H_i$ and $H_j$, over all $1 \leq i < j \leq m+1$. We prove tight bounds for the largest possible size of $A(S,m)$, over all point sets of size $n$, and for all values of $1 \leq m \leq n$. As a result of these bounds, we obtain, for any constant $ε>0$, a data structure of size $O(n)$, such that for any vertical query slab $Q$, the closest pair in the set $Q \cap S$ can be reported in $O(n^{1/2+ε})$ time. Prior to this work, no linear space data structure with sublinear query time was known.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Euclidean Steiner Shallow-Light Trees in Higher Dimensions

This paper proves a conjecture by Solomon about Steiner shallow-light trees (SLT) in Euclidean $d$-space: It is shown that for any finite point set $\mathbb{R}^d$, any root, and any $ε>0$, there is a Euclidean Steiner $(1+ε,O(\sqrt{1/ε}))$-SLT without any dependence on dimension. We also revisit the core example, designed by Solomon, in the plane and its generalization to $d$-space.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Erdős-Szekeres Maker-Breaker Games

We present new results on Maker-Breaker games arising from the Erdős-Szekeres problem in planar geometry. This classical problem asks how large a set in general position has to be to ensure the existence of $n$ points that are the vertices of a convex $n$-gon. Moreover, Erdős further extended this problem by asking what happens if we also require that this $n$-gon has an empty interior. In a 2-player Maker-Breaker setting, this problem inspires two main games. In both games, Maker tries to obtain an empty convex $k$-gon, while Breaker tries to prevent her from doing so. The games differ only in which points can comprise the winning $k$-gons: in the monochromatic version the points of both players can make up a $k$-gon, while in the bichromatic version only Maker's points contribute to such a polygon. Both settings are studied in this paper. We show that in the monochromatic game, Maker always wins. Even in a biased game where Breaker is allowed to place $s$ points per round, for any constant $s \geq 1$, Maker has a winning strategy. In the bichromatic setting, Maker still wins whenever Breaker is allowed to place $s$ points per round for any constant $s<2$. This settles an open problem posed by Aichholzer et al. (2019). Furthermore, we show that there are games that are not a lost cause for Breaker. Whenever $k\ge 8$ and Breaker is allowed to play 12 or more points per round, she has a winning strategy. We also consider the one-round bichromatic game (a.k.a.\ the offline version). In this setting, we show that Breaker wins if she can place twice as many points as Maker but if the bias is less than $2$, then Maker wins for large enough set of points.

math.CO↗

arXiv2026

Euclidean Noncrossing Steiner Spanners of Nearly Optimal Sparsity

A Euclidean noncrossing Steiner $(1+ε)$-spanner for a point set $P\subset\mathbb{R}^2$ is a planar straight-line graph that, for any two points $a, b \in P$, contains a path whose length is at most $1+ε$ times the Euclidean distance between $a$ and $b$. We construct a Euclidean noncrossing Steiner $(1+ε)$-spanner with $O(n/ε^{3/2})$ edges for any set of $n$ points in the plane. This result improves upon the previous best upper bound of $O(n/ε^{4})$ obtained nearly three decades ago. We also establish an almost matching lower bound: There exist $n$ points in the plane for which any Euclidean noncrossing Steiner $(1+ε)$-spanner has $Ω_μ(n/ε^{3/2-μ})$ edges for any $μ>0$. Our lower bound uses recent generalizations of the Szemerédi-Trotter theorem to disk-tube incidences in geometric measure theory.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Maximal Distortion of Geodesic Diameters in Polygonal Domains

For a polygon $P$ with holes in the plane, we denote by $\varrho(P)$ the ratio between the geodesic and the Euclidean diameters of $P$. It is shown that over all convex polygons with $h$~convex holes, the supremum of $\varrho(P)$ is between $Ω(h^{1/3})$ and $O(h^{1/2})$. The upper bound improves to $\varrho(P)\leq O(1+\min\{h^{3/4}Δ,h^{1/2}Δ^{1/2}\})$ if the Euclidean diameter of every hole is most $Δ$ times the Euclidean diameter of $P$; and to $O(1)$ if every hole is a \emph{fat} convex polygon. Furthermore, we show that the function $g(h)=\sup_P \varrho(P)$ over convex polygons with $h$ convex holes has the same growth rate as an analogous quantity over geometric triangulations with $h$ vertices when $h\rightarrow \infty$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

Approximating Euclidean Shallow-Light Trees

For a weighted graph $G = (V, E, w)$ and a designated source vertex $s \in V$, a spanning tree that simultaneously approximates a shortest-path tree w.r.t. source $s$ and a minimum spanning tree is called a shallow-light tree (SLT). Specifically, an $(α, β)$-SLT of $G$ w.r.t. $s \in V$ is a spanning tree of $G$ with root-stretch $α$ (preserving all distances between $s$ and the other vertices up to a factor of $α$) and lightness $β$ (its weight is at most $β$ times the weight of a minimum spanning tree of $G$). Despite the large body of work on SLTs, the basic question of whether a better approximation algorithm exists was left untouched to date, and this holds in any graph family. This paper makes a first nontrivial step towards this question by presenting two bicriteria approximation algorithms. For any $ε>0$, a set $P$ of $n$ points in constant-dimensional Euclidean space and a source $s\in P$, our first (respectively, second) algorithm returns, in $O(n \log n \cdot {\rm polylog}(1/ε))$ time, a non-Steiner (resp., Steiner) tree with root-stretch $1+O(ε\log ε^{-1})$ and weight at most $O(\mathrm{opt}_ε\cdot \log^2 ε^{-1})$ (resp., $O(\mathrm{opt}_ε\cdot \log ε^{-1})$), where $\mathrm{opt}_ε$ denotes the minimum weight of a non-Steiner (resp., Steiner) tree with root-stretch $1+ε$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

Online Hitting Sets for Disks of Bounded Radii

We present algorithms for the online minimum hitting set problem in geometric range spaces: given a set $P$ of $n$ points in the plane and a sequence of geometric objects that arrive one-by-one, we need to maintain a hitting set at all times by making irrevocable decisions. For disks of radii in the interval $[1,M]$, we present an $O(\log M \log n)$-competitive algorithm. This result generalizes from disks to positive homothets of any convex body in the plane with scaling factors in the interval $[1,M]$. As a main technical tool, we reduce the problem to the online hitting set problem for a finite subset of integer points and geometric objects with the lowest point property, introduced in this paper, which behave similarly to bottomless rectangles. Specifically, for a given $N>1$, we present an $O(\log N)$-competitive algorithm for the variant where $P$ is a subset of an $N\times N$ section of the integer lattice, and the geometric objects have the lowest point property.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

Online Hitting Set for Axis-Aligned Squares

We are given a set $P$ of $n$ points in the plane, and a sequence of axis-aligned squares that arrive in an online fashion. The online hitting set problem consists of maintaining, by adding new points if necessary, a set $H\subseteq P$ that contains at least one point in each input square. We present an $O(\log n)$-competitive deterministic algorithm for this problem. The competitive ratio is the best possible, apart from constant factors. In fact, this is the first $O(\log n)$-competitive algorithm for the online hitting set problem that works for geometric objects of arbitrary sizes (i.e., arbitrary scaling factors) in the plane. We further generalize this result to positive homothets of a polygon with $k\geq 3$ vertices in the plane and provide an $O(k^2\log n)$-competitive algorithm.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

Approximate Light Spanners in Planar Graphs

In their seminal paper, Althöfer et al. (DCG 1993) introduced the {\em greedy spanner} and showed that, for any weighted planar graph $G$, the weight of the greedy $(1+ε)$-spanner is at most $(1+\frac{2}ε) \cdot w(MST(G))$, where $w(MST(G))$ is the weight of a minimum spanning tree $MST(G)$ of $G$. This bound is optimal in an {\em existential sense}: there exist planar graphs $G$ for which any $(1+ε)$-spanner has a weight of at least $(1+\frac{2}ε) \cdot w(MST(G))$. However, as an {\em approximation algorithm}, even for a {\em bicriteria} approximation, the weight approximation factor of the greedy spanner is essentially as large as the existential bound: There exist planar graphs $G$ for which the greedy $(1+x ε)$-spanner (for any $1\leq x = O(ε^{-1/2})$) has a weight of $Ω(\frac{1}{ε\cdot x^2})\cdot w(G_{OPT, ε})$, where $G_{OPT, ε}$ is a $(1+ε)$-spanner of $G$ of minimum weight. Despite the flurry of works over the past three decades on approximation algorithms for spanners as well as on light(-weight) spanners, there is still no (possibly bicriteria) approximation algorithm for light spanners in weighted planar graphs that outperforms the existential bound. As our main contribution, we present a polynomial time algorithm for constructing, in any weighted planar graph $G$, a $(1+ε\cdot 2^{O(\log^* 1/ε)})$-spanner for $G$ of total weight $O(1)\cdot w(G_{OPT, ε})$. To achieve this result, we develop a new technique, which we refer to as {\em iterative planar pruning}. It iteratively modifies a spanner [...]

cs.DS↗

arXiv2025

Noncrossing Longest Paths and Cycles

Edge crossings in geometric graphs are sometimes undesirable as they could lead to unwanted situations such as collisions in motion planning and inconsistency in VLSI layout. Short geometric structures such as shortest perfect matchings, shortest spanning trees, shortest spanning paths, and shortest spanning cycles on a given point set are inherently noncrossing. However, the longest such structures need not be noncrossing. In fact, it is intuitive to expect many edge crossings in various geometric graphs that are longest. Recently, Álvarez-Rebollar, Cravioto-Lagos, Marín, Solé-Pi, and Urrutia (Graphs and Combinatorics, 2024) constructed a set of points for which the longest perfect matching is noncrossing. They raised several challenging questions in this direction. In particular, they asked whether the longest spanning path, on any finite set of points in the plane, must have a pair of crossing edges. They also conjectured that the longest spanning cycle must have a pair of crossing edges. In this paper, we give a negative answer to the question and also refute the conjecture. We present a framework for constructing arbitrarily large point sets for which the longest perfect matchings, the longest spanning paths, and the longest spanning cycles are noncrossing.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

The Price of Connectivity Augmentation on Planar Graphs

Given two classes of graphs, $\mathcal{G}_1\subseteq \mathcal{G}_2$, and a $c$-connected graph $G\in \mathcal{G}_1$, we wish to augment $G$ with a smallest cardinality set of new edges $F$ to obtain a $k$-connected graph $G'=(V,E\cup F) \in \mathcal{G}_2$. In general, this is the $c\to k$ connectivity augmentation problem. Previous research considered variants where $\mathcal{G}_1=\mathcal{G}_2$ is the class of planar graphs, plane graphs, or planar straight-line graphs. In all three settings, we prove that the $c\to k$ augmentation problem is NP-complete when $2\leq c<k\leq 5$. However, the connectivity of the augmented graph $G'$ is at most $5$ if $\mathcal{G}_2$ is limited to planar graphs. We initiate the study of the $c\to k$ connectivity augmentation problem for arbitrary $k\in \mathbb{N}$, where $\mathcal{G}_1$ is the class of planar graphs, plane graphs, or planar straight-line graphs, and $\mathcal{G}_2$ is a beyond-planar class of graphs: $\ell$-planar, $\ell$-plane topological, or $\ell$-plane geometric graphs. We obtain tight bounds on the tradeoffs between the desired connectivity $k$ and the local crossing number $\ell$ of the augmented graph $G'$. We also show that our hardness results apply to this setting. The connectivity augmentation problem for triangulations is intimately related to edge flips; and the minimum augmentation problem to the flip distance between triangulations. We prove that it is NP-complete to find the minimum flip distance between a given triangulation and a 4-connected triangulation, settling an open problem posed in 2014, and present an EPTAS for this problem.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2024

Online Duet between Metric Embeddings and Minimum-Weight Perfect Matchings

Low-distortional metric embeddings are a crucial component in the modern algorithmic toolkit. In an online metric embedding, points arrive sequentially and the goal is to embed them into a simple space irrevocably, while minimizing the distortion. Our first result is a deterministic online embedding of a general metric into Euclidean space with distortion $O(\log n)\cdot\min\{\sqrt{\logΦ},\sqrt{n}\}$ (or, $O(d)\cdot\min\{\sqrt{\logΦ},\sqrt{n}\}$ if the metric has doubling dimension $d$), solving a conjecture by Newman and Rabinovich (2020), and quadratically improving the dependence on the aspect ratio $Φ$ from Indyk et al.\ (2010). Our second result is a stochastic embedding of a metric space into trees with expected distortion $O(d\cdot \logΦ)$, generalizing previous results (Indyk et al.\ (2010), Bartal et al.\ (2020)). Next, we study the \emph{online minimum-weight perfect matching} problem, where a sequence of $2n$ metric points arrive in pairs, and one has to maintain a perfect matching at all times. We allow recourse (as otherwise the order of arrival determines the matching). The goal is to return a perfect matching that approximates the \emph{minimum-weight} perfect matching at all times, while minimizing the recourse. Our third result is a randomized algorithm with competitive ratio $O(d\cdot \log Φ)$ and recourse $O(\log Φ)$ against an oblivious adversary, this result is obtained via our new stochastic online embedding. Our fourth result is a deterministic algorithm against an adaptive adversary, using $O(\log^2 n)$ recourse, that maintains a matching of weight at most $O(\log n)$ times the weight of the MST, i.e., a matching of lightness $O(\log n)$. We complement our upper bounds with a strategy for an oblivious adversary that, with recourse $r$, establishes a lower bound of $Ω(\frac{\log n}{r \log r})$ for both competitive ratio and lightness.

cs.DS↗