arXiv subjects

Irene Parada

Publications and source records attributed to Irene Parada.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Compacting Squares: Input-Sensitive In-Place Reconfiguration of Sliding Squares

A well-established theoretical model for modular robots in two dimensions are edge-connected configurations of square modules, which can reconfigure through so-called sliding moves. Dumitrescu and Pach [Graphs and Combinatorics, 2006] proved that it is always possible to reconfigure one edge-connected configuration of $n$ squares into any other using at most $O(n^2)$ sliding moves, while keeping the configuration connected at all times. For certain pairs of configurations, reconfiguration may require $Ω(n^2)$ sliding moves. However, significantly fewer moves may be sufficient. We prove that it is NP-hard to minimize the number of sliding moves for a given pair of edge-connected configurations. On the positive side we present Gather&Compact, an input-sensitive in-place algorithm that requires only $O(\bar{P} n)$ sliding moves to transform one configuration into the other, where $\bar{P}$ is the maximum perimeter of the two bounding boxes. The squares move within the bounding boxes only, with the exception of at most one square at a time which may move through the positions adjacent to the bounding boxes. The $O(\bar{P} n)$ bound never exceeds $O(n^2)$, and is optimal (up to constant factors) among all bounds parameterized by just $n$ and $\bar{P}$. Our algorithm is built on the basic principle that well-connected components of modular robots can be transformed efficiently. Hence we iteratively increase the connectivity within a configuration, to finally arrive at a single solid $xy$-monotone component. We implemented Gather&Compact and compared it experimentally to the in-place modification by Moreno and Sacristán [EuroCG 2020] of the Dumitrescu and Pach algorithm (MSDP). Our experiments show that Gather&Compact consistently outperforms MSDP by a significant margin, on all types of square configurations.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2021

Saturated $k$-Plane Drawings with Few Edges

A drawing of a graph is $k$-plane if no edge is crossed more than $k$ times. In this paper we study saturated $k$-plane drawings with few edges. This are $k$-plane drawings in which no edge can be added without violating $k$-planarity. For every number of vertices $n>k+1$, we present a tight construction with $\frac{n-1}{k+1}$ edges for the case in which the edges can self-intersect. If we restrict the drawings to be $\ell$-simple we show that the number of edges in saturated $k$-plane drawings must be higher. We present constructions with few edges for different values of $k$ and $\ell$. Finally, we investigate saturated straight-line $k$-plane drawings.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2021

Edge-Minimum Saturated k-Planar Drawings

For a class $\mathcal{D}$ of drawings of loopless (multi-)graphs in the plane, a drawing $D \in \mathcal{D}$ is \emph{saturated} when the addition of any edge to $D$ results in $D' \notin \mathcal{D}$ - this is analogous to saturated graphs in a graph class as introduced by Turán (1941) and Erdős, Hajnal, and Moon (1964). We focus on $k$-planar drawings, that is, graphs drawn in the plane where each edge is crossed at most $k$ times, and the classes $\mathcal{D}$ of all $k$-planar drawings obeying a number of restrictions, such as having no crossing incident edges, no pair of edges crossing more than once, or no edge crossing itself. While saturated $k$-planar drawings are the focus of several prior works, tight bounds on how sparse these can be are not well understood. We establish a generic framework to determine the minimum number of edges among all $n$-vertex saturated $k$-planar drawings in many natural classes. For example, when incident crossings, multicrossings and selfcrossings are all allowed, the sparsest $n$-vertex saturated $k$-planar drawings have $\frac{2}{k - (k \bmod 2)} (n-1)$ edges for any $k \geq 4$, while if all that is forbidden, the sparsest such drawings have $\frac{2(k+1)}{k(k-1)}(n-1)$ edges for any $k \geq 6$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2021

Crossing Numbers of Beyond-Planar Graphs Revisited

Graph drawing beyond planarity focuses on drawings of high visual quality for non-planar graphs which are characterized by certain forbidden edge configurations. A natural criterion for the quality of a drawing is the number of edge crossings. The question then arises whether beyond-planar drawings have a significantly larger crossing number than unrestricted drawings. Chimani et al. [GD'19] gave bounds for the ratio between the crossing number of three classes of beyond-planar graphs and the unrestricted crossing number. In this paper we extend their results to the main currently known classes of beyond-planar graphs characterized by forbidden edge configurations and answer several of their open questions.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

Upward Point Set Embeddings of Paths and Trees

We study upward planar straight-line embeddings (UPSE) of directed trees on given point sets. The given point set $S$ has size at least the number of vertices in the tree. For the special case where the tree is a path $P$ we show that: (a) If $S$ is one-sided convex, the number of UPSEs equals the number of maximal monotone paths in $P$. (b) If $S$ is in general position and $P$ is composed by three maximal monotone paths, where the middle path is longer than the other two, then it always admits an UPSE on $S$. We show that the decision problem of whether there exists an UPSE of a directed tree with $n$ vertices on a fixed point set $S$ of $n$ points is NP-complete, by relaxing the requirements of the previously known result which relied on the presence of cycles in the graph, but instead fixing position of a single vertex. Finally, by allowing extra points, we guarantee that each directed caterpillar on $n$ vertices and with $k$ switches in its backbone admits an UPSE on every set of $n 2^{k-2}$ points.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

Crossing-Optimal Extension of Simple Drawings

In extension problems of partial graph drawings one is given an incomplete drawing of an input graph $G$ and is asked to complete the drawing while maintaining certain properties. A prominent area where such problems arise is that of crossing minimization. For plane drawings and various relaxations of these, there is a number of tractability as well as lower-bound results exploring the computational complexity of crossing-sensitive drawing extension problems. In contrast, comparatively few results are known on extension problems for the fundamental and broad class of simple drawings, that is, drawings in which each pair of edges intersects in at most one point. In fact, only recently it has been shown that the extension problem of simple drawings is NP-hard even when the task is to insert a single edge. In this paper we present tractability results for the crossing-sensitive extension problem of simple drawings. In particular, we show that the problem of inserting edges into a simple drawing is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by the number of edges to insert and an upper bound on newly created crossings. Using the same proof techniques, we are also able to answer several closely related variants of this problem, among others the extension problem for $k$-plane drawings. Moreover, using a different approach, we provide a single-exponential fixed-parameter algorithm for the case in which we are only trying to insert a single edge into the drawing.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

Characterizing Universal Reconfigurability of Modular Pivoting Robots

We give both efficient algorithms and hardness results for reconfiguring between two connected configurations of modules in the hexagonal grid. The reconfiguration moves that we consider are "pivots", where a hexagonal module rotates around a vertex shared with another module. Following prior work on modular robots, we define two natural sets of hexagon pivoting moves of increasing power: restricted and monkey moves. When we allow both moves, we present the first universal reconfiguration algorithm, which transforms between any two connected configurations using $O(n^3)$ monkey moves. This result strongly contrasts the analogous problem for squares, where there are rigid examples that do not have a single pivoting move preserving connectivity. On the other hand, if we only allow restricted moves, we prove that the reconfiguration problem becomes PSPACE-complete. Moreover, we show that, in contrast to hexagons, the reconfiguration problem for pivoting squares is PSPACE-complete regardless of the set of pivoting moves allowed. In the process, we strengthen the reduction framework of Demaine et al. [FUN'18] that we consider of independent interest.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

Minimal Representations of Order Types by Geometric Graphs

In order to have a compact visualization of the order type of a given point set S, we are interested in geometric graphs on S with few edges that unambiguously display the order type of S. We introduce the concept of exit edges, which prevent the order type from changing under continuous motion of vertices. That is, in the geometric graph on S whose edges are the exit edges, in order to change the order type of S, at least one vertex needs to move across an exit edge. Exit edges have a natural dual characterization, which allows us to efficiently compute them and to bound their number.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

On the Maximum Number of Crossings in Star-Simple Drawings of $K_n$ with No Empty Lens

A star-simple drawing of a graph is a drawing in which adjacent edges do not cross. In contrast, there is no restriction on the number of crossings between two independent edges. When allowing empty lenses (a face in the arrangement induced by two edges that is bounded by a 2-cycle), two independent edges may cross arbitrarily many times in a star-simple drawing. We consider star-simple drawings of $K_n$ with no empty lens. In this setting we prove an upper bound of $3((n-4)!)$ on the maximum number of crossings between any pair of edges. It follows that the total number of crossings is finite and upper bounded by $n!$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

New Results in Sona Drawing: Hardness and TSP Separation

Given a set of point sites, a sona drawing is a single closed curve, disjoint from the sites and intersecting itself only in simple crossings, so that each bounded region of its complement contains exactly one of the sites. We prove that it is NP-hard to find a minimum-length sona drawing for $n$ given points, and that such a curve can be longer than the TSP tour of the same points by a factor $> 1.5487875$. When restricted to tours that lie on the edges of a square grid, with points in the grid cells, we prove that it is NP-hard even to decide whether such a tour exists. These results answer questions posed at CCCG 2006.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

A superlinear lower bound on the number of 5-holes

Let $P$ be a finite set of points in the plane in general position, that is, no three points of $P$ are on a common line. We say that a set $H$ of five points from $P$ is a $5$-hole in $P$ if $H$ is the vertex set of a convex $5$-gon containing no other points of $P$. For a positive integer $n$, let $h_5(n)$ be the minimum number of 5-holes among all sets of $n$ points in the plane in general position. Despite many efforts in the last 30 years, the best known asymptotic lower and upper bounds for $h_5(n)$ have been of order $Ω(n)$ and $O(n^2)$, respectively. We show that $h_5(n) = Ω(n\log^{4/5}{n})$, obtaining the first superlinear lower bound on $h_5(n)$. The following structural result, which might be of independent interest, is a crucial step in the proof of this lower bound. If a finite set $P$ of points in the plane in general position is partitioned by a line $\ell$ into two subsets, each of size at least 5 and not in convex position, then $\ell$ intersects the convex hull of some 5-hole in $P$. The proof of this result is computer-assisted.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

On the 2-colored crossing number

Let $D$ be a straight-line drawing of a graph. The rectilinear 2-colored crossing number of $D$ is the minimum number of crossings between edges of the same color, taken over all possible 2-colorings of the edges of $D$. First, we show lower and upper bounds on the rectilinear 2-colored crossing number for the complete graph $K_n$. To obtain this result, we prove that asymptotic bounds can be derived from optimal and near-optimal instances with few vertices. We obtain such instances using a combination of heuristics and integer programming. Second, for any fixed drawing of $K_n$, we improve the bound on the ratio between its rectilinear 2-colored crossing number and its rectilinear crossing number.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2019

Universal Reconfiguration of Facet-Connected Modular Robots by Pivots: The $O(1)$ Musketeers

We present the first universal reconfiguration algorithm for transforming a modular robot between any two facet-connected square-grid configurations using pivot moves. More precisely, we show that five extra "helper" modules ("musketeers") suffice to reconfigure the remaining $n$ modules between any two given configurations. Our algorithm uses $O(n^2)$ pivot moves, which is worst-case optimal. Previous reconfiguration algorithms either require less restrictive "sliding" moves, do not preserve facet-connectivity, or for the setting we consider, could only handle a small subset of configurations defined by a local forbidden pattern. Configurations with the forbidden pattern do have disconnected reconfiguration graphs (discrete configuration spaces), and indeed we show that they can have an exponential number of connected components. But forbidding the local pattern throughout the configuration is far from necessary, as we show that just a constant number of added modules (placed to be freely reconfigurable) suffice for universal reconfigurability. We also classify three different models of natural pivot moves that preserve facet-connectivity, and show separations between these models.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2019

Extending Simple Drawings

Simple drawings of graphs are those in which each pair of edges share at most one point, either a common endpoint or a proper crossing. In this paper we study the problem of extending a simple drawing $D(G)$ of a graph $G$ by inserting a set of edges from the complement of $G$ into $D(G)$ such that the result is a simple drawing. In the context of rectilinear drawings, the problem is trivial. For pseudolinear drawings, the existence of such an extension follows from Levi's enlargement lemma. In contrast, we prove that deciding if a given set of edges can be inserted into a simple drawing is NP-complete. Moreover, we show that the maximization version of the problem is APX-hard. We also present a polynomial-time algorithm for deciding whether one edge $uv$ can be inserted into $D(G)$ when $\{u,v\}$ is a dominating set for the graph $G$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2018

How to Fit a Tree in a Box

We study compact straight-line embeddings of trees. We show that perfect binary trees can be embedded optimally: a tree with $n$ nodes can be drawn on a $\sqrt n$ by $\sqrt n$ grid. We also show that testing whether a given binary tree has an upward embedding with a given combinatorial embedding in a given grid is NP-hard.

cs.CG↗