arXiv subjects

Michiel Smid

Publications and source records attributed to Michiel Smid.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

On the Spanning Ratio of the Greedy Triangulation for Convex Point Sets

The greedy triangulation of a finite planar point set is obtained by considering all segments in nondecreasing order of length and inserting each segment that does not cross an earlier one. Its spanning ratio is known to be bounded by a universal constant, but the standard bound obtained from the diamond and good-polygon properties is about $11739.1$. We prove a substantially smaller bound for points in convex position. In particular, for every finite point set $P\subset\mathbb{R}^2$ in convex position and every pair $u,v\in P$, the greedy triangulation contains a $u$--$v$ path of length at most $\kappa |uv|$, where $\kappa<17.814$. Thus, the greedy triangulation of a convex point set is an $18$-spanner.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Completely Independent Steiner Trees

Spanning trees are fundamental for efficient communication in networks. For fault-tolerant communication, it is desirable to have multiple spanning trees to ensure resilience against failures of nodes and edges. To this end, various notions of disjoint or independent spanning trees have been studied, including edge-disjoint, node/edge-independent, and completely independent spanning trees. Alongside these, several Steiner variants have also been investigated, where the trees are required to span a designated subset of vertices called terminals. For instance, the study of edge-disjoint spanning trees has been extended to edge-disjoint Steiner trees; a stronger variant is the problem of internally disjoint Steiner trees, where any two Steiner trees intersect exactly in the terminals. In this paper, we investigate the Steiner analogue of completely independent spanning trees, which we call \emph{completely independent Steiner trees}. A set of Steiner trees is completely independent if, for every pair of terminals $u,v$, the $(u,v)$-paths in all the Steiner trees are internally vertex-disjoint and edge-disjoint. This notion generalizes both completely independent spanning trees and internally disjoint Steiner trees. We provide a systematic study of completely independent Steiner trees from structural, algorithmic, and complexity-theoretic perspectives. In particular, we present several characterisations, connectivity bounds, algorithms, hardness results, and applications to special graph classes such as planar graphs and graphs of bounded treewidth. Along the way, we also introduce a directed variant of completely independent spanning trees via an equivalence with completely independent Steiner trees.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2026

Linear-Time $(1+\varepsilon)$-Approximation Algorithms for Two-Line-Center Problems

Given a set $S$ of $n$ points in the plane, we study the two-line-center problem: finding two lines that minimize the maximum distance from each point in $S$ to its closest line. We present a $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm for the two-line-center problem that runs in $O((n/\varepsilon) \log (1/\varepsilon))$ time, which improves the previously best $O(n\log n + ({n}/{\varepsilon^2}) \log ({1}/{\varepsilon}) + (1/\varepsilon^3)\log ({1}/{\varepsilon}))$-time algorithm. We also consider three variants of this problem, in which the orientations of the two lines are restricted: (1) the orientation of one of the two lines is fixed, (2) the orientations of both lines are fixed, and (3) the two lines are required to be parallel. For each of these three variants, we give the first $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm that runs in linear time. In particular, for the variant where the orientation of one of the two lines is fixed, we also give an improved exact algorithm that runs in $O(n \log n)$ time and show that it is optimal.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

An Improved Bound for Plane Covering Paths

A covering path for a finite set $P$ of points in the plane is a polygonal path such that every point of $P$ lies on a segment of the path. The vertices of the path need not be at points of $P$. A covering path is plane if its segments do not cross each other. Let $\pi(n)$ be the minimum number such that every set of $n$ points in the plane admits a plane covering path with at most $\pi(n)$ segments. We prove that $\pi(n)\le \lceil6n/7\rceil$. This improves the previous best-known upper bound of $\lceil 21n/22\rceil$, due to Biniaz (SoCG 2023). Our proof is constructive and yields a simple $O(n\log n)$-time algorithm for computing a plane covering path.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

Polychromatic Coloring of Tuples in Hypergraphs

A hypergraph $H$ consists of a set $V$ of vertices and a set $E$ of hyperedges that are subsets of $V$. A $t$-tuple of $H$ is a subset of $t$ vertices of $V$. A $t$-tuple $k$-coloring of $H$ is a mapping of its $t$-tuples into $k$ colors. A coloring is called $(t,k,f)$-polychromatic if each hyperedge of $E$ that has at least $f$ vertices contains tuples of all the $k$ colors. Let $f_H(t,k)$ be the minimum $f$ such that $H$ has a $(t,k,f)$-polychromatic coloring. For a family of hypergraphs $\cal{H}$ let $f_{\cal{H}}(t,k)$ be the maximum $f_H(t,k)$ over all hypergraphs $H$ in $\cal{H}$. We present several bounds on $f_{\cal{H}}(t,k)$ for $t\ge 2$. - Let $\cal{H}$ be the family of hypergraphs $H$ that is obtained by taking any set $P$ of points in $\Re^2$, setting $V:=P$ and $E:=\{d\cap P\colon d\text{ is a disk in }\Re^2\}$. We prove that $f_\cal{H}(2,k)\le 3.7^k$, that is, the pairs of points (2-tuples) can be $k$-colored such that any disk containing at least $3.7^k$ points has pairs of all colors. - For the family $\mathcal{H}$ of shrinkable hypergraphs of VC-dimension at most $d$ we prove that $ f_\cal{H}(d{+}1,k) \leq c^k$ for some constant $c=c(d)$. We also prove that every hypergraph with $n$ vertices and with VC-dimension at most $d$ has a $(d{+}1)$-tuple $T$ of depth at least $\frac{n}{c}$, i.e., any hyperedge that contains $T$ also contains $\frac{n}{c}$ other vertices. - For the relationship between $t$-tuple coloring and vertex coloring in any hypergraph $H$ we establish the inequality $\frac{1}{e}\cdot tk^{\frac{1}{t}}\le f_H(t,k)\le f_H(1,tk^{\frac{1}{t}})$. For the special case of $k=2$, we prove that $t+1\le f_H(t,2)\le\max\{f_H(1,2), t+1\}$; this improves upon the previous best known upper bound. - We generalize some of our results to higher dimensions, other shapes, pseudo-disks, and also study the relationship between tuple coloring and epsilon nets.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

Deciding if a DAG is Interesting is Hard

The \emph{interestingness score} of a directed path $\Pi = e_1, e_2, e_3, \dots, e_\ell$ in an edge-weighted directed graph $G$ is defined as $\texttt{score}(\Pi) := \sum_{i=1}^\ell w(e_i) \cdot \log{(i+1)}$, where $w(e_i)$ is the weight of the edge $e_i$. We consider two optimization problems that arise in the analysis of Mapper graphs, which is a powerful tool in topological data analysis. In the IP problem, the objective is to find a collection $\mathcal{P}$ of edge-disjoint paths in $G$ with the maximum total interestingness score. %; that is, two raised to the power of the sum of the weights of the paths in $\mathcal{P}$. For $k \in \mathbb{N}$, the $k$-IP problem is a variant of the IP problem with the extra constraint that each path in $\mathcal{P}$ must have exactly $k$ edges. Kalyanaraman, Kamruzzaman, and Krishnamoorthy (Journal of Computational Geometry, 2019) claim that both IP and $k$-IP (for $k \geq 3$) are NP-complete. We point out some inaccuracies in their proofs. Furthermore, we show that both problems are NP-hard in directed acyclic graphs.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2025

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 $\epsilon>0$, 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 $O(n^{1/2+\epsilon})$ time. Prior to this work, no linear space data structure with sublinear query time was known.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2024

Computing Oriented Spanners and their Dilation

Given a point set $P$ in a metric space and a real number $t \geq 1$, an \emph{oriented $t$-spanner} is an oriented graph $\overrightarrow{G}=(P,\overrightarrow{E})$, where for every pair of distinct points $p$ and $q$ in $P$, the shortest oriented closed walk in $\overrightarrow{G}$ that contains $p$ and $q$ is at most a factor $t$ longer than the perimeter of the smallest triangle in $P$ containing $p$ and $q$. The \emph{oriented dilation} of a graph $\overrightarrow{G}$ is the minimum $t$ for which $\overrightarrow{G}$ is an oriented $t$-spanner. We present the first algorithm that computes, in Euclidean space, a sparse oriented spanner whose oriented dilation is bounded by a constant. More specifically, for any set of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$, where $d$ is a constant, we construct an oriented $(2+\varepsilon)$-spanner with $\mathcal{O}(n)$ edges in $\mathcal{O}(n \log n)$ time and $\mathcal{O}(n)$ space. Our construction uses the well-separated pair decomposition and an algorithm that computes a $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation of the minimum-perimeter triangle in $P$ containing two given query points in $\mathcal{O}(\log n)$ time. While our algorithm is based on first computing a suitable undirected graph and then orienting it, we show that, in general, computing the orientation of an undirected graph that minimises its oriented dilation is NP-hard, even for point sets in the Euclidean plane. We further prove that even if the orientation is already given, computing the oriented dilation is APSP-hard for points in a general metric space. We complement this result with an algorithm that approximates the oriented dilation of a given graph in subcubic time for point sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$, where $d$ is a constant.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2024

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, \'Alvarez-Rebollar, Cravioto-Lagos, Mar\'in, Sol\'e-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↗

arXiv2024

Euclidean Maximum Matchings in the Plane---Local to Global

Let $M$ be a perfect matching on a set of points in the plane where every edge is a line segment between two points. We say that $M$ is globally maximum if it is a maximum-length matching on all points. We say that $M$ is $k$-local maximum if for any subset $M'=\{a_1b_1,\dots,a_kb_k\}$ of $k$ edges of $M$ it holds that $M'$ is a maximum-length matching on points $\{a_1,b_1,\dots,a_k,b_k\}$. We show that local maximum matchings are good approximations of global ones. Let $\mu_k$ be the infimum ratio of the length of any $k$-local maximum matching to the length of any global maximum matching, over all finite point sets in the Euclidean plane. It is known that $\mu_k\geqslant \frac{k-1}{k}$ for any $k\geqslant 2$. We show the following improved bounds for $k\in\{2,3\}$: $\sqrt{3/7}\leqslant\mu_2< 0.93 $ and $\sqrt{3}/2\leqslant\mu_3< 0.98$. We also show that every pairwise crossing matching is unique and it is globally maximum. Towards our proof of the lower bound for $\mu_2$ we show the following result which is of independent interest: If we increase the radii of pairwise intersecting disks by factor $2/\sqrt{3}$, then the resulting disks have a common intersection.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2024

Metric and Geometric Spanners that are Resilient to Degree-Bounded Edge Faults

Let $H$ be an edge-weighted graph, and let $G$ be a subgraph of $H$. We say that $G$ is an $f$-fault-tolerant $t$-spanner for $H$, if the following is true for any subset $F$ of at most $f$ edges of $G$: For any two vertices $p$ and $q$, the shortest-path distance between $p$ and $q$ in the graph $G \setminus F$ is at most $t$ times the shortest-path distance between $p$ and $q$ in the graph $H \setminus F$. Recently, Bodwin, Haeupler, and Parter generalized this notion to the case when $F$ can be any set of edges in $G$, as long as the maximum degree of $F$ is at most $f$. They gave constructions for general graphs $H$. We first consider the case when $H$ is a complete graph whose vertex set is an arbitrary metric space. We show that if this metric space contains a $t$-spanner with $m$ edges, then it also contains a graph $G$ with $O(fm)$ edges, that is resilient to edge faults of maximum degree $f$ and has stretch factor $O(ft)$. Next, we consider the case when $H$ is a complete graph whose vertex set is a metric space that admits a well-separated pair decomposition. We show that, if the metric space has such a decomposition of size $m$, then it contains a graph with at most $(2f+1)^2 m$ edges, that is resilient to edge faults of maximum degree $f$ and has stretch factor at most $1+\varepsilon$, for any given $\varepsilon > 0$. For example, if the vertex set is a set of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ ($d$ being a constant) or a set of $n$ points in a metric space of bounded doubling dimension, then the spanner has $O(f^2 n)$ edges. Finally, for the case when $H$ is a complete graph on $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$, we show how natural variants of the Yao- and $\Theta$-graphs lead to graphs with $O(fn)$ edges, that are resilient to edge faults of maximum degree $f$ and have stretch factor at most $1+\varepsilon$, for any given $\varepsilon > 0$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2023

On Separating Path and Tree Systems in Graphs

We explore the concept of separating systems of vertex sets of graphs. A separating system of a set $X$ is a collection of subsets of $X$ such that for any pair of distinct elements in $X$, there exists a set in the separating system that contains exactly one of the two elements. A separating system of the vertex set of a graph $G$ is called a vertex-separating path (tree) system of $G$ if the elements of the separating system are paths (trees) in the graph $G$. In this paper, we focus on the size of the smallest vertex-separating path (tree) system for different types of graphs, including trees, grids, and maximal outerplanar graphs.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2021

Approximating bottleneck spanning trees on partitioned tuples of points

We present approximation algorithms for the following NP-hard optimization problems related to bottleneck spanning trees in metric spaces. 1. The disjoint bottleneck spanning tree problem: Given $n$ pairs of points in a metric space, find two disjoint trees each containing exactly one point from each pair and minimize the largest edge length (over all edges of both trees). It is known that approximating this problem by a factor better than 2 is NP-hard. We present a 4-approximation algorithm for this problem. This improves upon the previous best known approximation ratio of $9$. Our algorithm extends to a $(3k-2)$-approximation for a more general case where points are partitioned into $k$-tuples and we seek $k$ disjoint trees. 2. The generalized bottleneck spanning tree problem: Given $n$ points in some metric space that are partitioned into clusters of size at most 2, find a tree that contains exactly one point from each cluster and minimizes the largest edge length. We show that it is NP-hard to approximate this problem by a factor better than 2, and present a 3-approximation algorithm. 3. The partitioned bottleneck spanning tree problem: Given $kn$ points in some metric space, find $k$ trees each containing exactly $n$ points and minimize the largest edge length (over all edges of the $k$ trees). We show that it is NP-hard to approximate this problem by a factor better than 2 for any $k\ge 2$. We present an $α$-approximation algorithm for this problem where $α=2$ for $k=2,3$ and $α=3$ for $k\ge 4$. Towards obtaining these approximation ratios we present tight upper bounds on the edge lengths of $k$ equal-size disjoint trees that can be obtained from the nodes of a given tree. This result is of independent interest. Our hardness proofs imply that it is NP-hard to approximate the non-metric version of the above problems within any constant factor.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2021

Shortest Beer Path Queries in Outerplanar Graphs

A \emph{beer graph} is an undirected graph $G$, in which each edge has a positive weight and some vertices have a beer store. A \emph{beer path} between two vertices $u$ and $v$ in $G$ is any path in $G$ between $u$ and $v$ that visits at least one beer store. We show that any outerplanar beer graph $G$ with $n$ vertices can be preprocessed in $O(n)$ time into a data structure of size $O(n)$, such that for any two query vertices $u$ and $v$, (i) the weight of the shortest beer path between $u$ and $v$ can be reported in $O(α(n))$ time (where $α(n)$ is the inverse Ackermann function), and (ii) the shortest beer path between $u$ and $v$ can be reported in $O(L)$ time, where $L$ is the number of vertices on this path. Both results are optimal, even when $G$ is a beer tree (i.e., a beer graph whose underlying graph is a tree).

cs.DS↗

arXiv2021

Exact and Approximation Algorithms for Many-To-Many Point Matching in the Plane

Given two sets $S$ and $T$ of points in the plane, of total size $n$, a {many-to-many} matching between $S$ and $T$ is a set of pairs $(p,q)$ such that $p\in S$, $q\in T$ and for each $r\in S\cup T$, $r$ appears in at least one such pair. The {cost of a pair} $(p,q)$ is the (Euclidean) distance between $p$ and $q$. In the {minimum-cost many-to-many matching} problem, the goal is to compute a many-to-many matching such that the sum of the costs of the pairs is minimized. This problem is a restricted version of minimum-weight edge cover in a bipartite graph, and hence can be solved in $O(n^3)$ time. In a more restricted setting where all the points are on a line, the problem can be solved in $O(n\log n)$ time [Colannino, Damian, Hurtado, Langerman, Meijer, Ramaswami, Souvaine, Toussaint; Graphs Comb., 2007]. However, no progress has been made in the general planar case in improving the cubic time bound. In this paper, we obtain an $O(n^2\cdot poly(\log n))$ time exact algorithm and an $O( n^{3/2}\cdot poly(\log n))$ time $(1+ε)$-approximation in the planar case. Our results affirmatively address an open problem posed in [Colannino et al., Graphs Comb., 2007].

cs.CG↗

arXiv2021

Tight Bounds on the Clique Chromatic Number

The clique chromatic number of a graph is the minimum number of colours needed to colour its vertices so that no inclusion-wise maximal clique which is not an isolated vertex is monochromatic. We show that every graph of maximum degree $Δ$ has clique chromatic number $O\left(\fracΔ{\log~Δ}\right)$. We obtain as a corollary that every $n$-vertex graph has clique chromatic number $O\left(\sqrt{\frac{n}{\log ~n}}\right)$. Both these results are tight.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Computing Maximum Independent Set on Outerstring Graphs and Their Relatives

A graph $G$ with $n$ vertices is called an outerstring graph if it has an intersection representation of a set of $n$ curves inside a disk such that one endpoint of every curve is attached to the boundary of the disk. Given an outerstring graph representation, the Maximum Independent Set (MIS) problem of the underlying graph can be computed in $O(s^3)$ time, where $s$ is the number of segments in the representation (Keil et al., Comput. Geom., 60:19--25, 2017). If the strings are of constant size (e.g., line segments, L-shapes, etc.), then the algorithm takes $O(n^3)$ time. In this paper, we examine the fine-grained complexity of the MIS problem on some well-known outerstring representations. We show that solving the MIS problem on grounded segment and grounded square-L representations is at least as hard as solving MIS on circle graph representations. Note that no $O(n^{2-δ})$-time algorithm, $δ>0$, is known for the MIS problem on circle graphs. For the grounded string representations where the strings are $y$-monotone simple polygonal paths of constant length with segments at integral coordinates, we solve MIS in $O(n^2)$ time and show this to be the best possible under the strong exponential time hypothesis (SETH). For the intersection graph of $n$ L-shapes in the plane, we give a $(4\cdot \log OPT)$-approximation algorithm for MIS (where $OPT$ denotes the size of an optimal solution), improving the previously best-known $(4\cdot \log n)$-approximation algorithm of Biedl and Derka (WADS 2017).

cs.CG↗

arXiv2021

On the Spanning and Routing Ratio of Directed Theta-Four

We present a routing algorithm for the directed $Θ_4$-graph, here denoted as the $\overrightarrow{Θ_4}}$-graph, that computes a path between any two vertices $s$ and $t$ having length at most $17$ times the Euclidean distance between $s$ and $t$. To compute this path, at each step, the algorithm only uses knowledge of the location of the current vertex, its (at most four) outgoing edges, the destination vertex, and one additional bit of information in order to determine the next edge to follow. This provides the first known online, local, competitive routing algorithm with constant routing ratio for the $Θ_4$-graph, as well as improving the best known upper bound on the spanning ratio of these graphs from $237$ to $17$. We also show that without this additional bit of information, the routing ratio increases to $\sqrt{290} \approx 17.03$.

cs.CG↗