arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Petr Chmel.
Sleator and Tarjan [JACM, 1985] conjectured that splay trees are dynamically optimal -- that on every access sequence, they perform within a constant factor of the optimal offline dynamic binary search tree. Despite four decades of work, no $o(\log n)$ competitive ratio was known. We prove that splay trees are $O(\log\log n \cdot \log^2\log\log n)=\tilde{O}(\log\log n)$-competitive.
We develop catalytic algorithms for fundamental problems in algorithm design that run in polynomial time, use only $\mathcal{O}(\log(n))$ workspace, and use sublinear catalytic space matching the best-known space bounds of non-catalytic algorithms running in polynomial time. First, we design a polynomial time algorithm for directed $s$-$t$ connectivity using $n \big/ 2^{\Theta(\sqrt{\log n})}$ catalytic space, which matches the state-of-the-art time-space bounds in the non-catalytic setting [Barnes et al., 1998], and improves the catalytic space usage of the best known algorithm [Cook and Pyne, 2026]. Furthermore, using only $\mathcal{O}(\log(n))$ random bits we get a randomized algorithm whose running time nearly matches the fastest time bounds known for space-unrestricted algorithms. Second, we design polynomial time algorithms for the problems of computing Edit Distance, Longest Common Subsequence, and the Discrete Fr\'{e}chet Distance, again using $n \big/ 2^{\Theta(\sqrt{\log n})}$ catalytic space. This again matches non-catalytic time-space frontier for Edit Distance and Least Common Subsequence [Kiyomi et al., 2021].
A string graph is an intersection graph of curves in the plane. A $k$-string graph is a graph with a string representation in which every pair of curves intersects in at most $k$ points. We introduce the class of $(=k)$-string graphs as a further restriction of $k$-string graphs by requiring that every two curves intersect in either zero or precisely $k$ points. We study the hierarchy of these graphs, showing that for any $k\geq 1$, $(=k)$-string graphs are a subclass of $(=k+2)$-string graphs as well as of $(=4k)$-string graphs; however, there are no other inclusions between the classes of $(=k)$-string and $(=\ell)$-string graphs apart from those that are implied by the above rules. In particular, the classes of $(=k)$-string graphs and $(=k+1)$-string graphs are incomparable by inclusion for any $k$, and the class of $(=2)$-string graphs is not contained in the class of $(=2\ell+1)$-string graphs for any $\ell$.
Given a connected graph $G$ with some subset of its vertices excited and a fixed target vertex, in the geodesic-biased random walk on $G$, a random walker moves as follows: from an unexcited vertex, she moves to a uniformly random neighbour, whereas from an excited vertex, she takes one step along some fixed shortest path towards the target vertex. We show, perhaps counterintuitively, that the geodesic-bias can slow the random walker down exponentially: there exist connected, bounded-degree $n$-vertex graphs with excitations where the expected hitting time of a fixed target is at least $\exp (\sqrt[4]{n} / 100)$.