arXiv subjects

Patrick Schnider

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick Schnider.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

On Connectivity in Random Graph Models with Limited Dependencies

For any positive edge density $p$, a random graph in the Erdős-Renyi $G_{n,p}$ model is connected with non-zero probability, since all edges are mutually independent. We consider random graph models in which edges that do not share endpoints are independent while incident edges may be dependent and ask: what is the minimum probability $ρ(n)$, such that for any distribution $\mathcal{G}$ (in this model) on graphs with $n$ vertices in which each potential edge has a marginal probability of being present at least $ρ(n)$, a graph drawn from $\mathcal{G}$ is connected with non-zero probability? As it turns out, the condition ``edges that do not share endpoints are independent'' needs to be clarified and the answer to the question above is sensitive to the specification. In fact, we formalize this intuitive description into a strict hierarchy of five independence conditions, which we show to have at least three different behaviors for the threshold $ρ(n)$. For each condition, we provide upper and lower bounds for $ρ(n)$. In the strongest condition, the coloring model (which includes, e.g., random geometric graphs), we show that $ρ(n)\rightarrow 2-ϕ\approx 0.38$ for $n\rightarrow\infty$, proving a conjecture by Badakhshian, Falgas-Ravry, and Sharifzadeh. This separates the coloring models from the weaker independence conditions we consider, as there we prove that $ρ(n)>0.5-o(n)$. In stark contrast to the coloring model, for our weakest independence condition -- pairwise independence of non-adjacent edges -- we show that $ρ(n)$ lies within $O(1/n^2)$ of the threshold $1-2/n$ for completely arbitrary distributions.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

A Topological Version of Schaefer's Dichotomy Theorem

Schaefer's dichotomy theorem [Schaefer, STOC'78] states that a boolean constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) is polynomial-time solvable if one of six given conditions holds for every type of constraint allowed in its instances. Otherwise, it is NP-complete. In this paper, we analyze boolean CSPs in terms of their topological complexity, instead of their computational complexity. We attach a natural topological space to the set of solutions of a boolean CSP and introduce the notion of projection-universality. We prove that a boolean CSP is projection-universal if and only if it is categorized as NP-complete by Schaefer's dichotomy theorem, showing that the dichotomy translates exactly from computational to topological complexity. We show a similar dichotomy for SAT variants and homotopy-universality.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2023

An FPT Algorithm for Splitting a Necklace Among Two Thieves

It is well-known that the 2-Thief-Necklace-Splitting problem reduces to the discrete Ham Sandwich problem. In fact, this reduction was crucial in the proof of the PPA-completeness of the Ham Sandwich problem [Filos-Ratsikas and Goldberg, STOC'19]. Recently, a variant of the Ham Sandwich problem called $α$-Ham Sandwich has been studied, in which the point sets are guaranteed to be well-separated [Steiger and Zhao, DCG'10]. The complexity of this search problem remains unknown, but it is known to lie in the complexity class UEOPL [Chiu, Choudhary and Mulzer, ICALP'20]. We define the analogue of this well-separability condition in the necklace splitting problem -- a necklace is $n$-separable, if every subset $A$ of the $n$ types of jewels can be separated from the types $[n]\setminus A$ by at most $n$ separator points. By the reduction to the Ham Sandwich problem it follows that this version of necklace splitting has a unique solution. We furthermore provide two FPT algorithms: The first FPT algorithm solves 2-Thief-Necklace-Splitting on $(n-1+\ell)$-separable necklaces with $n$ types of jewels and $m$ total jewels in time $2^{O(\ell\log\ell)}+m^2$. In particular, this shows that 2-Thief-Necklace-Splitting is polynomial-time solvable on $n$-separable necklaces. Thus, attempts to show hardness of $α$-Ham Sandwich through reduction from the 2-Thief-Necklace-Splitting problem cannot work. The second FPT algorithm tests $(n-1+\ell)$-separability of a given necklace with $n$ types of jewels in time $2^{O(\ell^2)}\cdot n^4$. In particular, $n$-separability can thus be tested in polynomial time, even though testing well-separation of point sets is coNP-complete [Bergold et al., SWAT'22].

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

Topological Art in Simple Galleries

Let $P$ be a simple polygon, then the art gallery problem is looking for a minimum set of points (guards) that can see every point in $P$. We say two points $a,b\in P$ can see each other if the line segment $seg(a,b)$ is contained in $P$. We denote by $V(P)$ the family of all minimum guard placements. The Hausdorff distance makes $V(P)$ a metric space and thus a topological space. We show homotopy-universality, that is for every semi-algebraic set $S$ there is a polygon $P$ such that $V(P)$ is homotopy equivalent to $S$. Furthermore, for various concrete topological spaces $T$, we describe instances $I$ of the art gallery problem such that $V(I)$ is homeomorphic to $T$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2023

On the Complexity of Recognizing Nerves of Convex Sets

We study the problem of recognizing whether a given abstract simplicial complex $K$ is the $k$-skeleton of the nerve of $j$-dimensional convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$. We denote this problem by $R(k,j,d)$. As a main contribution, we unify the results of many previous works under this framework and show that many of these works in fact imply stronger results than explicitly stated. This allows us to settle the complexity status of $R(1,j,d)$, which is equivalent to the problem of recognizing intersection graphs of $j$-dimensional convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$, for any $j$ and $d$. Furthermore, we point out some trivial cases of $R(k,j,d)$, and demonstrate that $R(k,j,d)$ is ER-complete for $j\in\{d-1,d\}$ and $k\geq d$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2023

Combinatorial Depth Measures for Hyperplane Arrangements

Regression depth, introduced by Rousseeuw and Hubert in 1999, is a notion that measures how good of a regression hyperplane a given query hyperplane is with respect to a set of data points. Under projective duality, this can be interpreted as a depth measure for query points with respect to an arrangement of data hyperplanes. The study of depth measures for query points with respect to a set of data points has a long history, and many such depth measures have natural counterparts in the setting of hyperplane arrangements. For example, regression depth is the counterpart of Tukey depth. Motivated by this, we study general families of depth measures for hyperplane arrangements and show that all of them must have a deep point. Along the way we prove a Tverberg-type theorem for hyperplane arrangements, giving a positive answer to a conjecture by Rousseeuw and Hubert from 1999. We also get three new proofs of the centerpoint theorem for regression depth, all of which are either stronger or more general than the original proof by Amenta, Bern, Eppstein, and Teng. Finally, we prove a version of the center transversal theorem for regression depth.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2022

Well-Separation and Hyperplane Transversals in High Dimensions

A family of $k$ point sets in $d$ dimensions is well-separated if the convex hulls of any two disjoint subfamilies can be separated by a hyperplane. Well-separation is a strong assumption that allows us to conclude that certain kinds of generalized ham-sandwich cuts for the point sets exist. But how hard is it to check if a given family of high-dimensional point sets has this property? Starting from this question, we study several algorithmic aspects of the existence of transversals and separations in high-dimensions. First, we give an explicit proof that $k$ point sets are well-separated if and only if their convex hulls admit no $(k - 2)$-transversal, i.e., if there exists no $(k - 2)$-dimensional flat that intersects the convex hulls of all $k$ sets. It follows that the task of checking well-separation lies in the complexity class coNP. Next, we show that it is NP-hard to decide whether there is a hyperplane-transversal (that is, a $(d - 1)$-transversal) of a family of $d + 1$ line segments in $\mathbb{R}^d$, where $d$ is part of the input. As a consequence, it follows that the general problem of testing well-separation is coNP-complete. Furthermore, we show that finding a hyperplane that maximizes the number of intersected sets is NP-hard, but allows for an $Ω\left(\frac{\log k}{k \log \log k}\right)$-approximation algorithm that is polynomial in $d$ and $k$, when each set consists of a single point. When all point sets are finite, we show that checking whether there exists a $(k - 2)$-transversal is in fact strongly NP-complete.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2022

Enclosing Depth and other Depth Measures

We study families of depth measures defined by natural sets of axioms. We show that any such depth measure is a constant factor approximation of Tukey depth. We further investigate the dimensions of depth regions, showing that the Cascade conjecture, introduced by Kalai for Tverberg depth, holds for all depth measures which satisfy our most restrictive set of axioms, which includes Tukey depth. Along the way, we introduce and study a new depth measure called enclosing depth, which we believe to be of independent interest, and show its relation to a constant-fraction Radon theorem on certain two-colored point sets.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Edge Partitions of Complete Geometric Graphs (Part 2)

Recently, the second and third author showed that complete geometric graphs on $2n$ vertices in general cannot be partitioned into $n$ plane spanning trees. Building up on this work, in this paper, we initiate the study of partitioning into beyond planar subgraphs, namely into $k$-planar and $k$-quasi-planar subgraphs and obtain first bounds on the number of subgraphs required in this setting.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

The complexity of sharing a pizza

Assume you have a 2-dimensional pizza with $2n$ ingredients that you want to share with your friend. For this you are allowed to cut the pizza using several straight cuts, and then give every second piece to your friend. You want to do this fairly, that is, your friend and you should each get exactly half of each ingredient. How many cuts do you need? It was recently shown using topological methods that $n$ cuts always suffice. In this work, we study the computational complexity of finding such $n$ cuts. Our main result is that this problem is PPA-complete when the ingredients are represented as point sets. For this, we give a new proof that for point sets $n$ cuts suffice, which does not use any topological methods. We further prove several hardness results as well as a higher-dimensional variant for the case where the ingredients are well-separated.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2021

Tukey Depth Histograms

The Tukey depth of a flat with respect to a point set is a concept that appears in many areas of discrete and computational geometry. In particular, the study of centerpoints, center transversals, Ham Sandwich cuts, or $k$-edges can all be phrased in terms of depths of certain flats with respect to one or more point sets. In this work, we introduce the Tukey depth histogram of $k$-flats in $\mathbb{R}^d$ with respect to a point set $P$, which is a vector $D^{k,d}(P)$, whose $i$'th entry $D^{k,d}_i(P)$ denotes the number of $k$-flats spanned by $k+1$ points of $P$ that have Tukey depth $i$ with respect to $P$. As our main result, we give a complete characterization of the depth histograms of points, that is, for any dimension $d$ we give a description of all possible histograms $D^{0,d}(P)$. This then allows us to compute the exact number of possible such histograms.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2021

Efficiently stabbing convex polygons and variants of the Hadwiger-Debrunner $(p, q)$-theorem

Hadwiger and Debrunner showed that for families of convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ with the property that among any $p$ of them some $q$ have a common point, the whole family can be stabbed with $p-q+1$ points if $p \geq q \geq d+1$ and $(d-1)p < d(q-1)$. This generalizes a classical result by Helly. We show how such a stabbing set can be computed for a family of convex polygons in the plane with a total of $n$ vertices in $O((p-q+1)n^{4/3}\log^{8} n(\log\log n)^{1/3} + np^2)$ expected time. For polyhedra in $\mathbb{R}^3$, we get an algorithm running in $O((p-q+1)n^{5/2}\log^{10} n(\log\log n)^{1/6} + np^3)$ expected time. We also investigate other conditions on convex polygons for which our algorithm can find a fixed number of points stabbing them. Finally, we show that analogous results of the Hadwiger and Debrunner $(p,q)$-theorem hold in other settings, such as convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d\times\mathbb{Z}^k$ or abstract convex geometries.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

Equipartitions with Wedges and Cones

A famous result about mass partitions is the so called \emph{Ham-Sandwich theorem}. It states that any $d$ mass distributions in $\mathbb{R}^d$ can be simultaneously bisected by a single hyperplane. In this work, we study two related questions. The first one is how many masses we can simultaneously partition with a $k$-fan, that is, $k$ half-hyperplanes in $\mathbb{R}^d$, emanating from a common $(d-2)$-dimensional apex. This question was extensively studied in the plane, but in higher dimensions the only known results are for the case where $k$ is an odd prime. We extend these results to a larger family of values of $k$. We further present a new result for $k=2$, which generalizes to cones. The second question considers bisections with double wedges or, equivalently, Ham-Sandwich cuts after projective transformations. Here we prove that given $d$ families of $d+1$ point sets each, there is always a projective transformation such that after the transformation, each family has a Ham-Sandwich cut. We further prove a result on partitions with parallel hyperplanes after a projective transformation.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

On the Average Complexity of the $k$-Level

Let ${\cal L}$ be an arrangement of $n$ lines in the Euclidean plane. The \emph{$k$-level} of ${\cal L}$ consists of all vertices $v$ of the arrangement which have exactly $k$ lines of ${\cal L}$ passing below $v$. The complexity (the maximum size) of the $k$-level in a line arrangement has been widely studied. In 1998 Dey proved an upper bound of $O(n\cdot (k+1)^{1/3})$. Due to the correspondence between lines in the plane and great-circles on the sphere, the asymptotic bounds carry over to arrangements of great-circles on the sphere, where the $k$-level denotes the vertices at distance at most $k$ to a marked cell, the \emph{south pole}. We prove an upper bound of $O((k+1)^2)$ on the expected complexity of the $k$-level in great-circle arrangements if the south pole is chosen uniformly at random among all cells. We also consider arrangements of great $(d-1)$-spheres on the sphere $\mathbb{S}^d$ which are orthogonal to a set of random points on $\mathbb{S}^d$. In this model, we prove that the expected complexity of the $k$-level is of order $Θ((k+1)^{d-1})$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

Weighted Epsilon-Nets

Motivated by recent work of Bukh and Nivasch on one-sided $\varepsilon$-approximants, we introduce the notion of \emph{weighted $\varepsilon$-nets}. It is a geometric notion of approximation for point sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ similar to $\varepsilon$-nets and $\varepsilon$-approximations, where it is stronger than the former and weaker than the latter. The main idea is that small sets can contain many points, whereas large sets must contain many points of the weighted $\varepsilon$-net. In this paper, we analyze weak weighted $\varepsilon$-nets with respect to convex sets and axis-parallel boxes and give upper and lower bounds on $\varepsilon$ for weighted $\varepsilon$-nets of size two and three. Some of these bounds apply to classical $\varepsilon$-nets as well.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2020

Arrangements of Approaching Pseudo-Lines

We consider arrangements of $n$ pseudo-lines in the Euclidean plane where each pseudo-line $\ell_i$ is represented by a bi-infinite connected $x$-monotone curve $f_i(x)$, $x \in \mathbb{R}$, s.t.\ for any two pseudo-lines $\ell_i$ and $\ell_j$ with $i < j$, the function $x \mapsto f_j(x) - f_i(x)$ is monotonically decreasing and surjective (i.e., the pseudo-lines approach each other until they cross, and then move away from each other). We show that such \emph{arrangements of approaching pseudo-lines}, under some aspects, behave similar to arrangements of lines, while for other aspects, they share the freedom of general pseudo-line arrangements. For the former, we prove: 1. There are arrangements of pseudo-lines that are not realizable with approaching pseudo-lines. 2. Every arrangement of approaching pseudo-lines has a dual generalized configuration of points with an underlying arrangement of approaching pseudo-lines. For the latter, we show: 1. There are $2^{Θ(n^2)}$ isomorphism classes of arrangements of approaching pseudo-lines (while there are only $2^{Θ(n \log n)}$ isomorphism classes of line arrangements). 2. It can be decided in polynomial time whether an allowable sequence is realizable by an arrangement of approaching pseudo-lines. Furthermore, arrangements of approaching pseudo-lines can be transformed into each other by flipping triangular cells, i.e., they have a connected flip graph, and every bichromatic arrangement of this type contains a bichromatic triangular cell.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2019

Bisecting three classes of lines

We consider the following problem: Let $\mathcal{L}$ be an arrangement of $n$ lines in $\mathbb{R}^3$ colored red, green, and blue. Does there exist a vertical plane $P$ such that a line on $P$ simultaneously bisects all three classes of points in the cross-section $\mathcal{L} \cap P$? Recently, Schnider [SoCG 2019] used topological methods to prove that such a cross-section always exists. In this work, we give an alternative proof of this fact, using only methods from discrete geometry. With this combinatorial proof at hand, we devise an $O(n^2\log^2(n))$ time algorithm to find such a plane and the bisector of the induced cross-section. We do this by providing a general framework, from which we expect that it can be applied to solve similar problems on cross-sections and kinetic points.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2019

Sharing a pizza: bisecting masses with two cuts

Assume you have a pizza consisting of four ingredients (e.g., bread, tomatoes, cheese and olives) that you want to share with your friend. You want to do this fairly, meaning that you and your friend should get the same amount of each ingredient. How many times do you need to cut the pizza so that this is possible? We will show that two straight cuts always suffice. More formally, we will show the following extension of the well-known Ham-sandwich theorem: Given four mass distributions in the plane, they can be simultaneously bisected with two lines. That is, there exist two oriented lines with the following property: let $R^+_1$ be the region of the plane that lies to the positive side of both lines and let $R^+_2$ be the region of the plane that lies to the negative side of both lines. Then $R^+=R^+_1\cup R^+_2$ contains exactly half of each mass distribution.

cs.CG↗