arXiv subjects

Erik D. Demaine

Publications and source records attributed to Erik D. Demaine.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources

arXiv2004

Efficient Tree Layout in a Multilevel Memory Hierarchy

We consider the problem of laying out a tree with fixed parent/child structure in hierarchical memory. The goal is to minimize the expected number of block transfers performed during a search along a root-to-leaf path, subject to a given probability distribution on the leaves. This problem was previously considered by Gil and Itai, who developed optimal but slow algorithms when the block-transfer size B is known. We present faster but approximate algorithms for the same problem; the fastest such algorithm runs in linear time and produces a solution that is within an additive constant of optimal. In addition, we show how to extend any approximately optimal algorithm to the cache-oblivious setting in which the block-transfer size is unknown to the algorithm. The query performance of the cache-oblivious layout is within a constant factor of the query performance of the optimal known-block-size layout. Computing the cache-oblivious layout requires only logarithmically many calls to the layout algorithm for known block size; in particular, the cache-oblivious layout can be computed in O(N lg N) time, where N is the number of nodes. Finally, we analyze two greedy strategies, and show that they have a performance ratio between Omega(lg B / lg lg B) and O(lg B) when compared to the optimal layout.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2004

Optimal Adaptive Algorithms for Finding the Nearest and Farthest Point on a Parametric Black-Box Curve

We consider a general model for representing and manipulating parametric curves, in which a curve is specified by a black box mapping a parameter value between 0 and 1 to a point in Euclidean d-space. In this model, we consider the nearest-point-on-curve and farthest-point-on-curve problems: given a curve C and a point p, find a point on C nearest to p or farthest from p. In the general black-box model, no algorithm can solve these problems. Assuming a known bound on the speed of the curve (a Lipschitz condition), the answer can be estimated up to an additive error of epsilon using O(1/epsilon) samples, and this bound is tight in the worst case. However, many instances can be solved with substantially fewer samples, and we give algorithms that adapt to the inherent difficulty of the particular instance, up to a logarithmic factor. More precisely, if OPT(C,p,epsilon) is the minimum number of samples of C that every correct algorithm must perform to achieve tolerance epsilon, then our algorithm performs O(OPT(C,p,epsilon) log (epsilon^(-1)/OPT(C,p,epsilon))) samples. Furthermore, any algorithm requires Omega(k log (epsilon^(-1)/k)) samples for some instance C' with OPT(C',p,epsilon) = k; except that, for the nearest-point-on-curve problem when the distance between C and p is less than epsilon, OPT is 1 but the upper and lower bounds on the number of samples are both Theta(1/epsilon). When bounds on relative error are desired, we give algorithms that perform O(OPT log (2+(1+epsilon^(-1)) m^(-1)/OPT)) samples (where m is the exact minimum or maximum distance from p to C) and prove that Omega(OPT log (1/epsilon)) samples are necessary on some problem instances.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2003

When Can You Fold a Map?

We explore the following problem: given a collection of creases on a piece of paper, each assigned a folding direction of mountain or valley, is there a flat folding by a sequence of simple folds? There are several models of simple folds; the simplest one-layer simple fold rotates a portion of paper about a crease in the paper by +-180 degrees. We first consider the analogous questions in one dimension lower -- bending a segment into a flat object -- which lead to interesting problems on strings. We develop efficient algorithms for the recognition of simply foldable 1D crease patterns, and reconstruction of a sequence of simple folds. Indeed, we prove that a 1D crease pattern is flat-foldable by any means precisely if it is by a sequence of one-layer simple folds. Next we explore simple foldability in two dimensions, and find a surprising contrast: ``map'' folding and variants are polynomial, but slight generalizations are NP-complete. Specifically, we develop a linear-time algorithm for deciding foldability of an orthogonal crease pattern on a rectangular piece of paper, and prove that it is (weakly) NP-complete to decide foldability of (1) an orthogonal crease pattern on a orthogonal piece of paper, (2) a crease pattern of axis-parallel and diagonal (45-degree) creases on a square piece of paper, and (3) crease patterns without a mountain/valley assignment.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2003

Open Problems from CCCG 2002

A list of the problems presented on August 12, 2002 at the open-problem session of the 14th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry held in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2003

Hinged Dissection of Polyominoes and Polyforms

A hinged dissection of a set of polygons S is a collection of polygonal pieces hinged together at vertices that can be folded into any member of S. We present a hinged dissection of all edge-to-edge gluings of n congruent copies of a polygon P that join corresponding edges of P. This construction uses kn pieces, where k is the number of vertices of P. When P is a regular polygon, we show how to reduce the number of pieces to ceiling(k/2)*(n-1). In particular, we consider polyominoes (made up of unit squares), polyiamonds (made up of equilateral triangles), and polyhexes (made up of regular hexagons). We also give a hinged dissection of all polyabolos (made up of right isosceles triangles), which do not fall under the general result mentioned above. Finally, we show that if P can be hinged into Q, then any edge-to-edge gluing of n congruent copies of P can be hinged into any edge-to-edge gluing of n congruent copies of Q.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2002

Tetris is Hard, Even to Approximate

In the popular computer game of Tetris, the player is given a sequence of tetromino pieces and must pack them into a rectangular gameboard initially occupied by a given configuration of filled squares; any completely filled row of the gameboard is cleared and all pieces above it drop by one row. We prove that in the offline version of Tetris, it is NP-complete to maximize the number of cleared rows, maximize the number of tetrises (quadruples of rows simultaneously filled and cleared), minimize the maximum height of an occupied square, or maximize the number of pieces placed before the game ends. We furthermore show the extreme inapproximability of the first and last of these objectives to within a factor of p^(1-epsilon), when given a sequence of p pieces, and the inapproximability of the third objective to within a factor of (2 - epsilon), for any epsilon>0. Our results hold under several variations on the rules of Tetris, including different models of rotation, limitations on player agility, and restricted piece sets.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2002

Solitaire Clobber

Clobber is a new two-player board game. In this paper, we introduce the one-player variant Solitaire Clobber where the goal is to remove as many stones as possible from the board by alternating white and black moves. We show that a checkerboard configuration on a single row (or single column) can be reduced to about n/4 stones. For boards with at least two rows and two columns, we show that a checkerboard configuration can be reduced to a single stone if and only if the number of stones is not a multiple of three, and otherwise it can be reduced to two stones. We also show that in general it is NP-complete to decide whether an arbitrary Clobber configuration can be reduced to a single stone.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2002

Coin-Moving Puzzles

We introduce a new family of one-player games, involving the movement of coins from one configuration to another. Moves are restricted so that a coin can be placed only in a position that is adjacent to at least two other coins. The goal of this paper is to specify exactly which of these games are solvable. By introducing the notion of a constant number of extra coins, we give tight theorems characterizing solvable puzzles on the square grid and equilateral-triangle grid. These existence results are supplemented by polynomial-time algorithms for finding a solution.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2002

Long Proteins with Unique Optimal Foldings in the H-P Model

It is widely accepted that (1) the natural or folded state of proteins is a global energy minimum, and (2) in most cases proteins fold to a unique state determined by their amino acid sequence. The H-P (hydrophobic-hydrophilic) model is a simple combinatorial model designed to answer qualitative questions about the protein folding process. In this paper we consider a problem suggested by Brian Hayes in 1998: what proteins in the two-dimensional H-P model have unique optimal (minimum energy) foldings? In particular, we prove that there are closed chains of monomers (amino acids) with this property for all (even) lengths; and that there are open monomer chains with this property for all lengths divisible by four.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2001

Vertex-Unfoldings of Simplicial Manifolds

We present an algorithm to unfold any triangulated 2-manifold (in particular, any simplicial polyhedron) into a non-overlapping, connected planar layout in linear time. The manifold is cut only along its edges. The resulting layout is connected, but it may have a disconnected interior; the triangles are connected at vertices, but not necessarily joined along edges. We extend our algorithm to establish a similar result for simplicial manifolds of arbitrary dimension.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2001

Ununfoldable Polyhedra with Convex Faces

Unfolding a convex polyhedron into a simple planar polygon is a well-studied problem. In this paper, we study the limits of unfoldability by studying nonconvex polyhedra with the same combinatorial structure as convex polyhedra. In particular, we give two examples of polyhedra, one with 24 convex faces and one with 36 triangular faces, that cannot be unfolded by cutting along edges. We further show that such a polyhedron can indeed be unfolded if cuts are allowed to cross faces. Finally, we prove that ``open'' polyhedra with triangular faces may not be unfoldable no matter how they are cut.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2001

Phutball Endgames are Hard

We show that, in John Conway's board game Phutball (or Philosopher's Football), it is NP-complete to determine whether the current player has a move that immediately wins the game. In contrast, the similar problems of determining whether there is an immediately winning move in checkers, or a move that kings a man, are both solvable in polynomial time.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2001

The Complexity of Clickomania

We study a popular puzzle game known variously as Clickomania and Same Game. Basically, a rectangular grid of blocks is initially colored with some number of colors, and the player repeatedly removes a chosen connected monochromatic group of at least two square blocks, and any blocks above it fall down. We show that one-column puzzles can be solved, i.e., the maximum possible number of blocks can be removed, in linear time for two colors, and in polynomial time for an arbitrary number of colors. On the other hand, deciding whether a puzzle is solvable (all blocks can be removed) is NP-complete for two columns and five colors, or five columns and three colors.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2001

Vertex-Unfoldings of Simplicial Polyhedra

We present two algorithms for unfolding the surface of any polyhedron, all of whose faces are triangles, to a nonoverlapping, connected planar layout. The surface is cut only along polyhedron edges. The layout is connected, but it may have a disconnected interior: the triangles are connected at vertices, but not necessarily joined along edges.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2001

Enumerating Foldings and Unfoldings between Polygons and Polytopes

We pose and answer several questions concerning the number of ways to fold a polygon to a polytope, and how many polytopes can be obtained from one polygon; and the analogous questions for unfolding polytopes to polygons. Our answers are, roughly: exponentially many, or nondenumerably infinite.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2000

PushPush and Push-1 are NP-hard in 2D

We prove that two pushing-blocks puzzles are intractable in 2D. One of our constructions improves an earlier result that established intractability in 3D [OS99] for a puzzle inspired by the game PushPush. The second construction answers a question we raised in [DDO00] for a variant we call Push-1. Both puzzles consist of unit square blocks on an integer lattice; all blocks are movable. An agent may push blocks (but never pull them) in attempting to move between given start and goal positions. In the PushPush version, the agent can only push one block at a time, and moreover when a block is pushed it slides the maximal extent of its free range. In the Push-1 version, the agent can only push one block one square at a time, the minimal extent---one square. Both NP-hardness proofs are by reduction from SAT, and rely on a common construction.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2000

Flipturning polygons

A flipturn is an operation that transforms a nonconvex simple polygon into another simple polygon, by rotating a concavity 180 degrees around the midpoint of its bounding convex hull edge. Joss and Shannon proved in 1973 that a sequence of flipturns eventually transforms any simple polygon into a convex polygon. This paper describes several new results about such flipturn sequences. We show that any orthogonal polygon is convexified after at most n-5 arbitrary flipturns, or at most 5(n-4)/6 well-chosen flipturns, improving the previously best upper bound of (n-1)!/2. We also show that any simple polygon can be convexified by at most n^2-4n+1 flipturns, generalizing earlier results of Ahn et al. These bounds depend critically on how degenerate cases are handled; we carefully explore several possibilities. We describe how to maintain both a simple polygon and its convex hull in O(log^4 n) time per flipturn, using a data structure of size O(n). We show that although flipturn sequences for the same polygon can have very different lengths, the shape and position of the final convex polygon is the same for all sequences and can be computed in O(n log n) time. Finally, we demonstrate that finding the longest convexifying flipturn sequence of a simple polygon is NP-hard.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2000

Examples, Counterexamples, and Enumeration Results for Foldings and Unfoldings between Polygons and Polytopes

We investigate how to make the surface of a convex polyhedron (a polytope) by folding up a polygon and gluing its perimeter shut, and the reverse process of cutting open a polytope and unfolding it to a polygon. We explore basic enumeration questions in both directions: Given a polygon, how many foldings are there? Given a polytope, how many unfoldings are there to simple polygons? Throughout we give special attention to convex polygons, and to regular polygons. We show that every convex polygon folds to an infinite number of distinct polytopes, but that their number of combinatorially distinct gluings is polynomial. There are, however, simple polygons with an exponential number of distinct gluings. In the reverse direction, we show that there are polytopes with an exponential number of distinct cuttings that lead to simple unfoldings. We establish necessary conditions for a polytope to have convex unfoldings, implying, for example, that among the Platonic solids, only the tetrahedron has a convex unfolding. We provide an inventory of the polytopes that may unfold to regular polygons, showing that, for n>6, there is essentially only one class of such polytopes.

cs.CG↗