arXiv subjects

Pavel Valtr

Publications and source records attributed to Pavel Valtr.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

How Close is a Tree to a Euclidean Minimum Spanning Tree?

Let $\Gamma$ be a straight-line crossing-free drawing of a tree $T$. A \emph{bad pair} in $\Gamma$ is a pair of non-adjacent vertices of $T$ whose Euclidean distance in $\Gamma$ is smaller than the length of the longest edge in the path connecting them in~$\Gamma$. When $\Gamma$ has no bad pairs, $\Gamma$ is a Euclidean Minimum Spanning Tree of its vertex set (or EMST-drawing for short). Deciding whether a tree of maximum degree at most six admits an EMST-drawing is known to be \NP-hard. In contrast, we characterize those caterpillars that admit an EMST-drawing. The characterization gives rise to a linear-time algorithm that decides if a caterpillar admits an EMST-drawing, and in the affirmative case, computes such a drawing. For caterpillars of maximum degree six, we further present a linear-time algorithm to compute a crossing-free straight-line drawing with the minimum number of bad pairs. For $n$-vertex trees with maximum vertex degree $\Delta$, we prove the $\Delta^2n\log n$ upper bound on the minimum number of bad pairs. In the special case of stars, we construct a drawing with the minimum number of bad pairs.

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arXiv2026

Rerouting Curves on Surfaces

We study the problem of reconfiguring a crossing-free embedding of a graph on a surface, with edges represented as curves, into another crossing-free embedding of the same graph on the same surface with the same fixed vertex positions. In this process, we reroute one edge at a time while maintaining crossing-free intermediate embeddings. This problem was introduced by Ito et al. [TALG 2025], who showed that even if the graph is a matching of two edges, reconfiguration is not always possible in the plane, but is always possible on the torus. For matchings of two or more edges, they gave a necessary and sufficient condition for reconfigurable embeddings in the plane, but not on the torus. Our main result is that for matchings, trees and forests, reconfiguration is always possible on the torus, and consequently, on any orientable surface of genus at least one. In addition, we provide sufficient conditions for reconfiguration on orientable surfaces of genus at least one and in the projective plane. For more general graphs, we show that reconfiguration is not always possible.

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arXiv2026

Simultaneous Embedding of Two Paths on the Grid

We study the problem of simultaneous geometric embedding of two paths without self-intersections on an integer grid. We show that minimizing the length of the longest edge of such an embedding is NP-hard. We also show that we can minimize in $O(n^{3/2})$ time the perimeter of an integer grid containing such an embedding if one path is $x$-monotone and the other is $y$-monotone.

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arXiv2026

Hypercube drawings with no long plane paths

We study the existence of plane substructures in drawings of the $d$-dimensional hypercube graph $Q_d$. We construct drawings of $Q_d$ which contain no plane subgraph with more than $2d-2$ edges, no plane path with more than $2d-3$ edges, and no plane matching of size more than $2d-4$. On the other hand, we prove that every rectilinear drawing of $Q_d$ with vertices in convex position contains a plane path of length $d$ (if $d$ is odd) or $d-1$ (if $d$ is even). We also prove that if a graph $G$ is a plane subgraph of every drawing of $Q_d$ for a sufficiently large $d$, then $G$ is necessarily a forest of caterpillars. Lastly, we give a short proof of a generalization of a result by Alpert et al. [Cong. Numerantium, 2009] on the maximum rectilinear crossing number of $Q_d$.

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arXiv2026

How many times can two minimum spanning trees cross?

Let $P$ be a generic set of $n$ points in the plane, and let $P=R\cup B$ be a coloring of $P$ in two colors. We are interested in the number of crossings between the minimum spanning trees (MSTs) of $R$ and $B$, denoted by $\crossAB(R,B)$. We define the \emph{bicolored MST crossing number} of $P$, denoted by $\cross(P)$, as $\cross(P) = \max_{P= R\cup B}(\crossAB(R,B))$. We prove a linear upper bound for $\cross(P)$ when $P$ is generic. If $P$ is dense or in convex position, we provide linear lower bounds. Lastly, if $P$ is chosen uniformly at random from the unit square and is colored uniformly at random, we prove that the expected value of $\crossAB(R,B)$ is linear.

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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.

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arXiv2023

Structure of betweenness uniform graphs with low values of betweenness centrality

This work deals with undirected graphs that have the same betweenness centrality for each vertex, so-called betweenness uniform graphs (or BUGs). The class of these graphs is not trivial and its classification is still an open problem. Recently, Gago, Coroni\v{c}ov\'a-Hurajov\'a and Madaras conjectured that for every rational $\alpha\ge 3/4$ there exists a BUG having betweenness centrality~$\alpha$. We disprove this conjecture, and provide an alternative view of the structure of betweenness-uniform graphs from the point of view of their complement. This allows us to characterise all the BUGs with betweennes centrality at most 9/10, and show that their betweenness centrality is equal to $\frac{\ell}{\ell+1}$ for some integer $\ell\le 9$. We conjecture that this characterization extends to all the BUGs with betweenness centrality smaller than~1.

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arXiv2023

Three Edge-disjoint Plane Spanning Paths in a Point Set

We consider the following problem: Given a set $S$ of $n$ distinct points in the plane, how many edge-disjoint plane straight-line spanning paths can be drawn on $S$? Each spanning path must be crossing-free, but edges from different paths are allowed to intersect at arbitrary points. It is known that if the points of $S$ are in convex position, then $\lfloor n/2 \rfloor$ such paths always exist. However, for general point sets, the best known construction yields only two edge-disjoint plane spanning paths. In this paper, we prove that for any set $S$ of at least ten points in general position (i.e., no three points are collinear), it is always possible to draw at least three edge-disjoint plane straight-line spanning paths. Our proof relies on a structural result about halving lines in point sets and builds on the known two-path construction, which we also strengthen: we show that for any set $S$ of at least six points, and for any two specified points on the boundary of the convex hull of $S$, there exist two edge-disjoint plane spanning paths that start at those prescribed points. Finally, we complement our positive results with a lower bound: for every $n \geq 6$, there exists a set of $n$ points for which no more than $\lceil n/3 \rceil$ edge-disjoint plane spanning paths are possible.

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arXiv2022

Erdős--Szekeres-type problems in the real projective plane

We consider point sets in the real projective plane $\mathbb{R}P^2$ and explore variants of classical extremal problems about planar point sets in this setting, with a main focus on Erdős--Szekeres-type problems. We provide asymptotically tight bounds for a variant of the Erdős--Szekeres theorem about point sets in convex position in $\mathbb{R}P^2$, which was initiated by Harborth and Möller in 1994. The notion of convex position in $\mathbb{R}P^2$ agrees with the definition of convex sets introduced by Steinitz in 1913. For $k \geq 3$, an (\affine) $k$-hole in a finite set $S \subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$ is a set of $k$ points from $S$ in convex position with no point of $S$ in the interior of their convex hull. After introducing a new notion of $k$-holes for points sets from $\mathbb{R}P^2$, called projective $k$-holes, we find arbitrarily large finite sets of points from $\mathbb{R}P^2$ with no \projective 8-holes, providing an analogue of a classical planar construction by Horton from 1983. We also prove that they contain only quadratically many \projective $k$-holes for $k \leq 7$. On the other hand, we show that the number of $k$-holes can be substantially larger in~$\mathbb{R}P^2$ than in $\mathbb{R}^2$ by constructing, for every $k \in \{3,\dots,6\}$, sets of $n$ points from $\mathbb{R}^2 \subset \mathbb{R}P^2$ with $Ω(n^{3-3/5k})$ \projective $k$-holes and only $O(n^2)$ \affine $k$-holes. Last but not least, we prove several other results, for example about projective holes in random point sets in $\mathbb{R}P^2$ and about some algorithmic aspects. The study of extremal problems about point sets in $\mathbb{R}P^2$ opens a new area of research, which we support by posing several open problems.

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arXiv2022

Bounding and computing obstacle numbers of graphs

An obstacle representation of a graph $G$ consists of a set of pairwise disjoint simply-connected closed regions and a one-to-one mapping of the vertices of $G$ to points such that two vertices are adjacent in $G$ if and only if the line segment connecting the two corresponding points does not intersect any obstacle. The obstacle number of a graph is the smallest number of obstacles in an obstacle representation of the graph in the plane such that all obstacles are simple polygons. It is known that the obstacle number of each $n$-vertex graph is $O(n \log n)$ [Balko, Cibulka, and Valtr, 2018] and that there are $n$-vertex graphs whose obstacle number is $\Omega(n/(\log\log n)^2)$ [Dujmovi\'c and Morin, 2015]. We improve this lower bound to $\Omega(n/\log\log n)$ for simple polygons and to $\Omega(n)$ for convex polygons. To obtain these stronger bounds, we improve known estimates on the number of $n$-vertex graphs with bounded obstacle number, solving a conjecture by Dujmovi\'c and Morin. We also show that if the drawing of some $n$-vertex graph is given as part of the input, then for some drawings $\Omega(n^2)$ obstacles are required to turn them into an obstacle representation of the graph. Our bounds are asymptotically tight in several instances. We complement these combinatorial bounds by two complexity results. First, we show that computing the obstacle number of a graph $G$ is fixed-parameter tractable in the vertex cover number of $G$. Second, we show that, given a graph $G$ and a simple polygon $P$, it is NP-hard to decide whether $G$ admits an obstacle representation using $P$ as the only obstacle.

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arXiv2022

On Crossing-Families in Planar Point Sets

A $k$-crossing family in a point set $S$ in general position is a set of $k$ segments spanned by points of $S$ such that all $k$ segments mutually cross. In this short note we present two statements on crossing families which are based on sets of small cardinality: (1) Any set of at least 15 points contains a crossing family of size 4. (2) There are sets of $n$ points which do not contain a crossing family of size larger than $8\lceil \frac{n}{41} \rceil$. Both results improve the previously best known bounds.

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arXiv2022

Holes and islands in random point sets

For $d\in\mathbb{N}$, let $S$ be a set of points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ in general position. A set $I$ of $k$ points from $S$ is a $k$-island in $S$ if the convex hull $\mathrm{conv}(I)$ of $I$ satisfies $\mathrm{conv}(I) \cap S = I$. A $k$-island in $S$ in convex position is a $k$-hole in $S$. For $d,k\in\mathbb{N}$ and a convex body $K\subseteq\mathbb{R}^d$ of volume $1$, let $S$ be a set of $n$ points chosen uniformly and independently at random from $K$. We show that the expected number of $k$-holes in $S$ is in $O(n^d)$. Our estimate improves and generalizes all previous bounds. In particular, we estimate the expected number of empty simplices in $S$ by $2^{d-1}\cdot d!\cdot\binom{n}{d}$. This is tight in the plane up to a lower-order term. Our method gives an asymptotically tight upper bound $O(n^d)$ even in the much more general setting, where we estimate the expected number of $k$-islands in $S$.

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arXiv2022

Tight bounds on the expected number of holes in random point sets

For integers $d \geq 2$ and $k \geq d+1$, a $k$-hole in a set $S$ of points in general position in $\mathbb{R}^d$ is a $k$-tuple of points from $S$ in convex position such that the interior of their convex hull does not contain any point from $S$. For a convex body $K \subseteq \mathbb{R}^d$ of unit $d$-dimensional volume, we study the expected number $EH^K_{d,k}(n)$ of $k$-holes in a set of $n$ points drawn uniformly and independently at random from $K$. We prove an asymptotically tight lower bound on $EH^K_{d,k}(n)$ by showing that, for all fixed integers $d \geq 2$ and $k\geq d+1$, the number $EH_{d,k}^K(n)$ is at least $Ω(n^d)$. For some small holes, we even determine the leading constant $\lim_{n \to \infty}n^{-d}EH^K_{d,k}(n)$ exactly. We improve the currently best known lower bound on $\lim_{n \to \infty}n^{-d}EH^K_{d,d+1}(n)$ by Reitzner and Temesvari (2019). In the plane, we show that the constant $\lim_{n \to \infty}n^{-2}EH^K_{2,k}(n)$ is independent of $K$ for every fixed $k \geq 3$ and we compute it exactly for $k=4$, improving earlier estimates by Fabila-Monroy, Huemer, and Mitsche (2015) and by the authors (2020).

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arXiv2021

On the Connectivity and the Diameter of Betweenness-Uniform Graphs

Betweenness centrality is a centrality measure based on the overall amount of shortest paths passing through a given vertex. A graph is betweenness-uniform if all its vertices have the same betweenness centrality. We study the properties of betweenness-uniform graphs. In particular, we show that every connected betweenness-uniform graph is either a cycle or a $3$-connected graph. Also, we show that betweenness uniform graphs of high maximal degree have small diameter.

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arXiv2021

Non-homotopic Loops with a Bounded Number of Pairwise Intersections

Let $V_n$ be a set of $n$ points in the plane and let $x \notin V_n$. An $x$-loop is a continuous closed curve not containing any point of $V_n$. We say that two $x$-loops are non-homotopic if they cannot be transformed continuously into each other without passing through a point of $V_n$. For $n=2$, we give an upper bound $e^{O\left(\sqrt{k}\right)}$ on the maximum size of a family of pairwise non-homotopic $x$-loops such that every loop has fewer than $k$ self-intersections and any two loops have fewer than $k$ intersections. The exponent $O\big(\sqrt{k}\big)$ is asymptotically tight. The previous upper bound bound $2^{(2k)^4}$ was proved by Pach, Tardos, and Tóth [Graph Drawing 2020]. We prove the above result by proving the asymptotic upper bound $e^{O\left(\sqrt{k}\right)}$ for a similar problem when $x \in V_n$, and by proving a close relation between the two problems.

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arXiv2021

Linear Layouts of Complete Graphs

A page (queue) with respect to a vertex ordering of a graph is a set of edges such that no two edges cross (nest), i.e., have their endpoints ordered in an ABAB-pattern (ABBA-pattern). A union page (union queue) is a vertex-disjoint union of pages (queues). The union page number (union queue number) of a graph is the smallest $ k $ such that there is a vertex ordering and a partition of the edges into $ k $ union pages (union queues). The local page number (local queue number) is the smallest $ k $ for which there is a vertex ordering and a partition of the edges into pages (queues) such that each vertex has incident edges in at most $ k $ pages (queues). We present upper and lower bounds on these four parameters for the complete graph $ K_n $ on $ n $ vertices. In three cases we obtain the exact result up to an additive constant. In particular, the local page number of $ K_n $ is $ n/3 \pm O(1) $, while its local and union queue number is $ (1-1/\sqrt{2})n \pm O(1) $. The union page number of $ K_n $ is between $ n/3 - O(1) $ and $ 4n/9 + O(1) $.

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arXiv2021

The Crossing Tverberg Theorem

Tverberg's theorem is one of the cornerstones of discrete geometry. It states that, given a set $X$ of at least $(d+1)(r-1)+1$ points in $\mathbb R^d$, one can find a partition $X=X_1\cup \ldots \cup X_r$ of $X$, such that the convex hulls of the $X_i$, $i=1,\ldots,r$, all share a common point. In this paper, we prove a strengthening of this theorem that guarantees a partition which, in addition to the above, has the property that the boundaries of full-dimensional convex hulls have pairwise nonempty intersections. Possible generalizations and algorithmic aspects are also discussed. As a concrete application, we show that any $n$ points in the plane in general position span $\lfloor n/3\rfloor$ vertex-disjoint triangles that are pairwise crossing, meaning that their boundaries have pairwise nonempty intersections; this number is clearly best possible. A previous result of Rebollar et al.\ guarantees $\lfloor n/6\rfloor$ pairwise crossing triangles. Our result generalizes to a result about simplices in $\mathbb R^d,d\ge2$.

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arXiv2021

Graph Drawing and Network Visualization GD2020

Proceedings of GD2020: This volume contains the papers presented at GD~2020, the 28th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization, held on September 18-20, 2020 online. Graph drawing is concerned with the geometric representation of graphs and constitutes the algorithmic core of network visualization. Graph drawing and network visualization are motivated by applications where it is crucial to visually analyse and interact with relational datasets. Information about the conference series and past symposia is maintained at http://www.graphdrawing.org. The 2020 edition of the conference was hosted by University Of British Columbia, with Will Evans as chair of the Organizing Committee. A total of 251 participants attended the conference.

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