arXiv subjects

Gerth Stølting Brodal

Publications and source records attributed to Gerth Stølting Brodal.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Impossibility of Simultaneous Time and I/O Optimality for The Planar Maxima and Convex Hull Problems

We prove that no deterministic output-sensitive algorithm for the planar convex hull and maxima problems can obtain both optimal time and I/O complexity, where the optimality is defined with respect to both the input and output sizes. This explains why the best previous algorithms achieved an optimal I/O bound at the cost of sub-optimal running time (Goodrich et al. [FOCS, 1993]). To the best of our knowledge, the impossibility of simultaneous optimality was only shown previously for the permutation problem by Brodal and Fagerberg [STOC, 2003]. Our results imply that no optimal deterministic output-sensitive cache-oblivious algorithm exists for either problem. In addition, we present simple deterministic algorithms that match our lower bounds and that provide a trade-off between time and I/Os. On the other hand, a simple modification of our deterministic algorithm results in a randomized algorithm that simultaneously achieves optimal (worst-case) time and optimal expected I/O bounds.

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arXiv2026

Partition-based Simple Heaps

We introduce a new family of priority-queue data structures: partition-based simple heaps. The structures consist of $O(\log n)$ doubly-linked lists; order is enforced among data in different lists, but the individual lists are unordered. Our structures have amortized $O(\log n)$ time extract-min and amortized $O(\log \log n)$ time insert and decrease-key. The structures require nothing beyond binary search over $O(\log n)$ elements, as well as binary partitions and concatenations of linked lists in natural ways as the linked lists get too big or small. We present three different ways that these lists can be maintained in order to obtain the stated amortized running times.

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arXiv2025

Buffered Partially-Persistent External-Memory Search Trees

We present an optimal partially-persistent external-memory search tree with amortized I/O bounds matching those achieved by the non-persistent $B^{\varepsilon}$-tree by Brodal and Fagerberg [SODA 2003]. In a partially-persistent data structure each update creates a new version of the data structure, where all past versions can be queried, but only the current version can be updated. All operations should be efficient with respect to the size $N_v$ of the accessed version $v$. For any parameter $0<\varepsilon<1$, our data structure supports insertions and deletions in amortized $O\!\left(\frac{1}{\varepsilon B^{1-\varepsilon}}\log_B N_v\right)$ I/Os, where $B$ is the external-memory block size. It also supports successor and range reporting queries in amortized $O\!\left(\frac{1}{\varepsilon}\log_B N_v+K/B\right)$ I/Os, where $K$ is the number of values reported. The space usage of the data structure is linear in the total number of updates. We make the standard and minimal assumption that the internal memory has size $M \geq 2B$. The previous state-of-the-art external-memory partially-persistent search tree by Arge, Danner and Teh [JEA 2003] supports all operations in worst-case $O\!\left(\log_B N_v+K/B\right)$ I/Os, matching the bounds achieved by the classical B-tree by Bayer and McCreight [Acta Informatica 1972]. Our data structure successfully combines buffering updates with partial persistence. The I/O bounds can also be achieved in the worst-case sense, by slightly modifying our data structure and under the requirement that the memory size $M = Ω\!\left(B^{1-\varepsilon}\log_2(\max_v N_v)\right)$. The worst-case result slightly improves the memory requirement over the previous ephemeral external-memory dictionary by Das, Iacono, and Nekrich (ISAAC 2022), who achieved matching worst-case I/O bounds but required $M=Ω\!\left(B\log_B N\right)$.

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arXiv2024

Bottom-up Rebalancing Binary Search Trees by Flipping a Coin

Rebalancing schemes for dynamic binary search trees are numerous in the literature, where the goal is to maintain trees of low height, either in the worst-case or expected sense. In this paper we study randomized rebalancing schemes for sequences of $n$ insertions into an initially empty binary search tree, under the assumption that a tree only stores the elements and the tree structure without any additional balance information. Seidel~(2009) presented a top-down randomized insertion algorithm, where insertions take expected $O\big(\lg^2 n\big)$ time, and the resulting trees have the same distribution as inserting a uniform random permutation into a binary search tree without rebalancing. Seidel states as an open problem if a similar result can be achieved with bottom-up insertions. In this paper we fail to answer this question. We consider two simple canonical randomized bottom-up insertion algorithms on binary search trees, assuming that an insertion is given the position where to insert the next element. The subsequent rebalancing is performed bottom-up in expected $O(1)$ time, uses expected $O(1)$ random bits, performs at most two rotations, and the rotations appear with geometrically decreasing probability in the distance from the leaf. For some insertion sequences the expected depth of each node is proved to be $O(\lg n)$. On the negative side, we prove for both algorithms that there exist simple insertion sequences where the expected depth is $Ω(n)$, i.e., the studied rebalancing schemes are \emph{not} competitive with (most) other rebalancing schemes in the literature.

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arXiv2024

Dynamic Convex Hulls for Simple Paths

We consider the planar dynamic convex hull problem. In the literature, solutions exist supporting the insertion and deletion of points in poly-logarithmic time and various queries on the convex hull of the current set of points in logarithmic time. If arbitrary insertion and deletion of points are allowed, constant time updates and fast queries are known to be impossible. This paper considers two restricted cases where worst-case constant time updates and logarithmic time queries are possible. We assume all updates are performed on a deque (double-ended queue) of points. The first case considers the monotonic path case, where all points are sorted in a given direction, say horizontally left-to-right, and only the leftmost and rightmost points can be inserted and deleted. The second case assumes that the points in the deque constitute a simple path. Note that the monotone case is a special case of the simple path case. For both cases, we present solutions supporting deque insertions and deletions in worst-case constant time and standard queries on the convex hull of the points in $O(\log n)$ time, where $n$ is the number of points in the current point set. The convex hull of the current point set can be reported in $O(h+\log n)$ time, where $h$ is the number of edges of the convex hull. For the 1-sided monotone path case, where updates are only allowed on one side, the reporting time can be reduced to $O(h)$, and queries on the convex hull are supported in $O(\log h)$ time. All our time bounds are worst case. In addition, we prove lower bounds that match these time bounds, and thus our results are optimal. For a quick comparison, the previous best update bounds for the simple path problem were amortized $O(\log n)$ time by Friedman, Hershberger, and Snoeyink [SoCG 1989].

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arXiv2024

Deterministic Cache-Oblivious Funnelselect

In the multiple-selection problem one is given an unsorted array $S$ of $N$ elements and an array of $q$ query ranks $r_1<\cdots 0$, and $Δ_i = r_{i} - r_{i-1}$ (assuming $r_0=0$ and $r_{q+1}=N + 1$).

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arXiv2020

Soft Sequence Heaps

Chazelle [JACM00] introduced the soft heap as a building block for efficient minimum spanning tree algorithms, and recently Kaplan et al. [SOSA2019] showed how soft heaps can be applied to achieve simpler algorithms for various selection problems. A soft heap trades-off accuracy for efficiency, by allowing $εN$ of the items in a heap to be corrupted after a total of $N$ insertions, where a corrupted item is an item with artificially increased key and $0 < ε\leq 1/2$ is a fixed error parameter. Chazelle's soft heaps are based on binomial trees and support insertions in amortized $O(\lg(1/ε))$ time and extract-min operations in amortized $O(1)$ time. In this paper we explore the design space of soft heaps. The main contribution of this paper is an alternative soft heap implementation based on merging sorted sequences, with time bounds matching those of Chazelle's soft heaps. We also discuss a variation of the soft heap by Kaplan et al. [SICOMP2013], where we avoid performing insertions lazily. It is based on ternary trees instead of binary trees and matches the time bounds of Kaplan et al., i.e. amortized $O(1)$ insertions and amortized $O(\lg(1/ε))$ extract-min. Both our data structures only introduce corruptions after extract-min operations which return the set of items corrupted by the operation.

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arXiv2019

Cache Oblivious Algorithms for Computing the Triplet Distance Between Trees

We study the problem of computing the triplet distance between two rooted unordered trees with $n$ labeled leafs. Introduced by Dobson 1975, the triplet distance is the number of leaf triples that induce different topologies in the two trees. The current theoretically best algorithm is an $\mathrm{O}(n \log n)$ time algorithm by Brodal et al. (SODA 2013). Recently Jansson and Rajaby proposed a new algorithm that, while slower in theory, requiring $\mathrm{O}(n \log^3 n)$ time, in practice it outperforms the theoretically faster $\mathrm{O}(n \log n)$ algorithm. Both algorithms do not scale to external memory. We present two cache oblivious algorithms that combine the best of both worlds. The first algorithm is for the case when the two input trees are binary trees and the second a generalized algorithm for two input trees of arbitrary degree. Analyzed in the RAM model, both algorithms require $\mathrm{O}(n \log n)$ time, and in the cache oblivious model $\mathrm{O}(\frac{n}{B} \log_{2} \frac{n}{M})$ I/Os. Their relative simplicity and the fact that they scale to external memory makes them achieve the best practical performance. We note that these are the first algorithms that scale to external memory, both in theory and practice, for this problem.

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arXiv2019

Dynamic Planar Convex Hull

In this article, we determine the amortized computational complexity of the planar dynamic convex hull problem by querying. We present a data structure that maintains a set of n points in the plane under the insertion and deletion of points in amortized O(log n) time per operation. The space usage of the data structure is O(n). The data structure supports extreme point queries in a given direction, tangent queries through a given point, and queries for the neighboring points on the convex hull in O(log n) time. The extreme point queries can be used to decide whether or not a given line intersects the convex hull, and the tangent queries to determine whether a given point is inside the convex hull. We give a lower bound on the amortized asymptotic time complexity that matches the performance of this data structure.

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arXiv2015

External Memory Three-Sided Range Reporting and Top-$k$ Queries with Sublogarithmic Updates

An external memory data structure is presented for maintaining a dynamic set of $N$ two-dimensional points under the insertion and deletion of points, and supporting 3-sided range reporting queries and top-$k$ queries, where top-$k$ queries report the $k$~points with highest $y$-value within a given $x$-range. For any constant $0<\varepsilon\leq \frac{1}{2}$, a data structure is constructed that supports updates in amortized $O(\frac{1}{\varepsilon B^{1-\varepsilon}}\log_B N)$ IOs and queries in amortized $O(\frac{1}{\varepsilon}\log_B N+K/B)$ IOs, where $B$ is the external memory block size, and $K$ is the size of the output to the query (for top-$k$ queries $K$ is the minimum of $k$ and the number of points in the query interval). The data structure uses linear space. The update bound is a significant factor $B^{1-\varepsilon}$ improvement over the previous best update bounds for the two query problems, while staying within the same query and space bounds.

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arXiv2015

Strictly Implicit Priority Queues: On the Number of Moves and Worst-Case Time

The binary heap of Williams (1964) is a simple priority queue characterized by only storing an array containing the elements and the number of elements $n$ - here denoted a strictly implicit priority queue. We introduce two new strictly implicit priority queues. The first structure supports amortized $O(1)$ time Insert and $O(\log n)$ time ExtractMin operations, where both operations require amortized $O(1)$ element moves. No previous implicit heap with $O(1)$ time Insert supports both operations with $O(1)$ moves. The second structure supports worst-case $O(1)$ time Insert and $O(\log n)$ time (and moves) ExtractMin operations. Previous results were either amortized or needed $O(\log n)$ bits of additional state information between operations.

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arXiv2014

Optimal Planar Orthogonal Skyline Counting Queries

The skyline of a set of points in the plane is the subset of maximal points, where a point $(x,y)$ is maximal if no other point $(x',y')$ satisfies $x'\ge x$ and $y'\ge Y$. We consider the problem of preprocessing a set $P$ of $n$ points into a space efficient static data structure supporting orthogonal skyline counting queries, i.e. given a query rectangle $R$ to report the size of the skyline of $P$ intersected with $R$. We present a data structure for storing n points with integer coordinates having query time $O(\lg n/\lg\lg n)$ and space usage $O(n)$. The model of computation is a unit cost RAM with logarithmic word size. We prove that these bounds are the best possible by presenting a lower bound in the cell probe model with logarithmic word size: Space usage $n\lg^{O(1)} n$ implies worst case query time $Ω(\lg n/\lg\lg n)$.

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arXiv2012

Cache-Oblivious Implicit Predecessor Dictionaries with the Working Set Property

In this paper we present an implicit dynamic dictionary with the working-set property, supporting insert(e) and delete(e) in O(log n) time, predecessor(e) in O(log l_{p(e)}) time, successor(e) in O(log l_{s(e)}) time and search(e) in O(log min(l_{p(e)},l_{e}, l_{s(e)})) time, where n is the number of elements stored in the dictionary, l_{e} is the number of distinct elements searched for since element e was last searched for and p(e) and s(e) are the predecessor and successor of e, respectively. The time-bounds are all worst-case. The dictionary stores the elements in an array of size n using no additional space. In the cache-oblivious model the log is base B and the cache-obliviousness is due to our black box use of an existing cache-oblivious implicit dictionary. This is the first implicit dictionary supporting predecessor and successor searches in the working-set bound. Previous implicit structures required O(log n) time.

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arXiv2012

Dynamic 3-sided Planar Range Queries with Expected Doubly Logarithmic Time

This work studies the problem of 2-dimensional searching for the 3-sided range query of the form $[a, b]\times (-\infty, c]$ in both main and external memory, by considering a variety of input distributions. We present three sets of solutions each of which examines the 3-sided problem in both RAM and I/O model respectively. The presented data structures are deterministic and the expectation is with respect to the input distribution.

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