arXiv subjects

Sylvain Lazard

Publications and source records attributed to Sylvain Lazard.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2017

On the Edge-length Ratio of Outerplanar Graphs

We show that any outerplanar graph admits a planar straightline drawing such that the length ratio of the longest to the shortest edges is strictly less than 2. This result is tight in the sense that for any $ε> 0$ there are outerplanar graphs that cannot be drawn with an edge-length ratio smaller than $2 - ε$. We also show that every bipartite outerplanar graph has a planar straight-line drawing with edge-length ratio 1, and that, for any $k \geq 1$, there exists an outerplanar graph with a given combinatorial embedding such that any planar straight-line drawing has edge-length ratio greater than k.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2016

Monotone Simultaneous Embeddings of Paths in R^d

We study the following problem: Given $k$ paths that share the same vertex set, is there a simultaneous geometric embedding of these paths such that each individual drawing is monotone in some direction? We prove that for any dimension $d \geq 2$, there is a set of $d+1$ paths that does not admit a monotone simultaneous geometric embedding.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2014

Improved algorithm for computing separating linear forms for bivariate systems

We address the problem of computing a linear separating form of a system of two bivariate polynomials with integer coefficients, that is a linear combination of the variables that takes different values when evaluated at the distinct solutions of the system. The computation of such linear forms is at the core of most algorithms that solve algebraic systems by computing rational parameterizations of the solutions and this is the bottleneck of these algorithms in terms of worst-case bit complexity. We present for this problem a new algorithm of worst-case bit complexity $\sOB(d^7+d^6τ)$ where $d$ and $τ$ denote respectively the maximum degree and bitsize of the input (and where $\sO$ refers to the complexity where polylogarithmic factors are omitted and $O_B$ refers to the bit complexity). This algorithm simplifies and decreases by a factor $d$ the worst-case bit complexity presented for this problem by Bouzidi et al. \cite{bouzidiJSC2014a}. This algorithm also yields, for this problem, a probabilistic Las-Vegas algorithm of expected bit complexity $\sOB(d^5+d^4τ)$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2014

Separating linear forms for bivariate systems

We present an algorithm for computing a separating linear form of a system of bivariate polynomials with integer coefficients, that is a linear combination of the variables that takes different values when evaluated at distinct (complex) solutions of the system. In other words, a separating linear form defines a shear of the coordinate system that sends the algebraic system in generic position, in the sense that no two distinct solutions are vertically aligned. The computation of such linear forms is at the core of most algorithms that solve algebraic systems by computing rational parameterizations of the solutions and, moreover, the computation a separating linear form is the bottleneck of these algorithms, in terms of worst-case bit complexity. Given two bivariate polynomials of total degree at most $d$ with integer coefficients of bitsize at most~$τ$, our algorithm computes a separating linear form in $\sOB(d^{8}+d^7τ)$ bit operations in the worst case, where the previously known best bit complexity for this problem was $\sOB(d^{10}+d^9τ)$ (where $\sO$ refers to the complexity where polylogarithmic factors are omitted and $O_B$ refers to the bit complexity).

cs.SC↗

arXiv2013

Rational Univariate Representations of Bivariate Systems and Applications

We address the problem of solving systems of two bivariate polynomials of total degree at most $d$ with integer coefficients of maximum bitsize $τ$. It is known that a linear separating form, that is a linear combination of the variables that takes different values at distinct solutions of the system, can be computed in $\sOB(d^{8}+d^7τ)$ bit operations (where $O_B$ refers to bit complexities and $\sO$ to complexities where polylogarithmic factors are omitted) and we focus here on the computation of a Rational Univariate Representation (RUR) given a linear separating form. We present an algorithm for computing a RUR with worst-case bit complexity in $\sOB(d^7+d^6τ)$ and bound the bitsize of its coefficients by $\sO(d^2+dτ)$. We show in addition that isolating boxes of the solutions of the system can be computed from the RUR with $\sOB(d^{8}+d^7τ)$ bit operations. Finally, we show how a RUR can be used to evaluate the sign of a bivariate polynomial (of degree at most $d$ and bitsize at most $τ$) at one real solution of the system in $\sOB(d^{8}+d^7τ)$ bit operations and at all the $Θ(d^2)$ {real} solutions in only $O(d)$ times that for one solution.

cs.SC↗

arXiv2013

Analysis of Farthest Point Sampling for Approximating Geodesics in a Graph

A standard way to approximate the distance between any two vertices $p$ and $q$ on a mesh is to compute, in the associated graph, a shortest path from $p$ to $q$ that goes through one of $k$ sources, which are well-chosen vertices. Precomputing the distance between each of the $k$ sources to all vertices of the graph yields an efficient computation of approximate distances between any two vertices. One standard method for choosing $k$ sources, which has been used extensively and successfully for isometry-invariant surface processing, is the so-called Farthest Point Sampling (FPS), which starts with a random vertex as the first source, and iteratively selects the farthest vertex from the already selected sources. In this paper, we analyze the stretch factor $\mathcal{F}_{FPS}$ of approximate geodesics computed using FPS, which is the maximum, over all pairs of distinct vertices, of their approximated distance over their geodesic distance in the graph. We show that $\mathcal{F}_{FPS}$ can be bounded in terms of the minimal value $\mathcal{F}^*$ of the stretch factor obtained using an optimal placement of $k$ sources as $\mathcal{F}_{FPS}\leq 2 r_e^2 \mathcal{F}^*+ 2 r_e^2 + 8 r_e + 1$, where $r_e$ is the ratio of the lengths of the longest and the shortest edges of the graph. This provides some evidence explaining why farthest point sampling has been used successfully for isometry-invariant shape processing. Furthermore, we show that it is NP-complete to find $k$ sources that minimize the stretch factor.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2010

Farthest-Polygon Voronoi Diagrams

Given a family of k disjoint connected polygonal sites in general position and of total complexity n, we consider the farthest-site Voronoi diagram of these sites, where the distance to a site is the distance to a closest point on it. We show that the complexity of this diagram is O(n), and give an O(n log^3 n) time algorithm to compute it. We also prove a number of structural properties of this diagram. In particular, a Voronoi region may consist of k-1 connected components, but if one component is bounded, then it is equal to the entire region.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2007

An Upper Bound on the Average Size of Silhouettes

It is a widely observed phenomenon in computer graphics that the size of the silhouette of a polyhedron is much smaller than the size of the whole polyhedron. This paper provides, for the first time, theoretical evidence supporting this for a large class of objects, namely for polyhedra that approximate surfaces in some reasonable way; the surfaces may be non-convex and non-differentiable and they may have boundaries. We prove that such polyhedra have silhouettes of expected size $O(\sqrt{n})$ where the average is taken over all points of view and n is the complexity of the polyhedron.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2005

Line tangents to four triangles in three-dimensional space

We investigate the lines tangent to four triangles in R^3. By a construction, there can be as many as 62 tangents. We show that there are at most 162 connected components of tangents, and at most 156 if the triangles are disjoint. In addition, if the triangles are in (algebraic) general position, then the number of tangents is finite and it is always even.

math.MG↗

arXiv2004

On tangents to quadric surfaces

We study the variety of common tangents for up to four quadric surfaces in projective three-space, with particular regard to configurations of four quadrics admitting a continuum of common tangents. We formulate geometrical conditions in the projective space defined by all complex quadric surfaces which express the fact that several quadrics are tangent along a curve to one and the same quadric of rank at least three, and called, for intuitive reasons: a basket. Lines in any ruling of the latter will be common tangents. These considerations are then restricted to spheres in Euclidean three-space, and result in a complete answer to the question over the reals: ``When do four spheres allow infinitely many common tangents?''.

math.AG↗

arXiv2003

The number of transversals to line segments in R^3

We completely describe the structure of the connected components of transversals to a collection of n line segments in R^3. We show that n>2 arbitrary line segments in R^3 admit 0, 1, ..., n or infinitely many line transversals. In the latter case, the transversals form up to n connected components.

math.MG↗

arXiv2000

On Reconfiguring Tree Linkages: Trees can Lock

It has recently been shown that any simple (i.e. nonintersecting) polygonal chain in the plane can be reconfigured to lie on a straight line, and any simple polygon can be reconfigured to be convex. This result cannot be extended to tree linkages: we show that there are trees with two simple configurations that are not connected by a motion that preserves simplicity throughout the motion. Indeed, we prove that an $N$-link tree can have $2^{Ω(N)}$ equivalence classes of configurations.

cs.CG↗

arXiv1999

Motion Planning of Legged Robots

We study the problem of computing the free space F of a simple legged robot called the spider robot. The body of this robot is a single point and the legs are attached to the body. The robot is subject to two constraints: each leg has a maximal extension R (accessibility constraint) and the body of the robot must lie above the convex hull of its feet (stability constraint). Moreover, the robot can only put its feet on some regions, called the foothold regions. The free space F is the set of positions of the body of the robot such that there exists a set of accessible footholds for which the robot is stable. We present an efficient algorithm that computes F in O(n2 log n) time using O(n2 alpha(n)) space for n discrete point footholds where alpha(n) is an extremely slowly growing function (alpha(n) <= 3 for any practical value of n). We also present an algorithm for computing F when the foothold regions are pairwise disjoint polygons with n edges in total. This algorithm computes F in O(n2 alpha8(n) log n) time using O(n2 alpha8(n)) space (alpha8(n) is also an extremely slowly growing function). These results are close to optimal since Omega(n2) is a lower bound for the size of F.

cs.CG↗