Converting triangulations to quadrangulations

We study the problem of converting triangulated domains to quadrangulations, under a variety of constraints. We obtain a variety of characterizations for when a triangulation (of some structure such as a polygon, set of points, line segments or planar subdivision) admits a quadrangulation without the use of Steiner points, or with a bounded number of Steiner points. We also investigate the effect of demanding that the Steiner points be added in the interior or exterior of a triangulated simple polygon and propose efficient algorithms for accomplishing these tasks. For example, we give a linear-time method that quadrangulates a triangulated simple polygon with the minimum number of outer Steiner points required for that triangulation. We show that this minimum can be at most n/3, and that there exist polygons that require this many such Steiner points. We also show that a triangulated simple n-gon may be quadrangulated with at most n/4 Steiner points inside the polygon and at most one outside. This algorithm also allows us to obtain, in linear time, quadrangulations from general triangulated domains (such as triangulations of polygons with holes, a set of points or line segments) with a bounded number of Steiner points.     

Off-centers: A new type of Steiner points for computing size-optimal quality-guaranteed Delaunay triangulations

We introduce a new type of Steiner points, called off-centers, as an alternative to circumcenters, to improve the quality of Delaunay triangulations in two dimensions. We propose a new Delaunay refinement algorithm based on iterative insertion of off-centers. We show that this new algorithm has the same quality and size optimality guarantees of the best known refinement algorithms. In practice, however, the new algorithm inserts fewer Steiner points, runs faster, and generates smaller triangulations than the best previous algorithms. Performance improvements are significant especially when user-specified minimum angle is large, e.g., when the smallest angle in the output triangulation is 30°, the number of Steiner points is reduced by about 40%, while the mesh size is down by about 30%. As a result of its shown benefits, the algorithm described here has already replaced the well-known circumcenter insertion algorithm of Ruppert and has been the default quality triangulation method in the popular meshing software Triangle.¹     

Generating realistic terrains with higher-order Delaunay triangulations

For hydrologic applications, terrain models should have few local minima, and drainage lines should coincide with edges. We show that triangulating a set of points with elevations such that the number of local minima of the resulting terrain is minimized is NP-hard for degenerate point sets. The same result applies when there are no degeneracies for higher-order Delaunay triangulations. Two heuristics are presented to reduce the number of local minima for higher-order Delaunay triangulations, which start out with the Delaunay triangulation. We give efficient algorithms for their implementation, and test on real-world data how well they perform. We also study another desirable drainage characteristic, few valley components, and how to obtain it for higher-order Delaunay triangulations. This gives rise to a third heuristic. Tables and visualizations show how the heuristics perform for the drainage characteristics on real-world data.     

带梯子的曲折线上的最短树问题

Abstract. In this paper,Steiner minimal trees for point sets with special structure are studied.These sets consist of zigzag lines and equidistant points lying on them.     

Approximating the minimum weight steiner triangulation

We show that the length of the minimum weight Steiner triangulation (MWST) of a point set can be approximated within a constant factor by a triangulation algorithm based on quadtrees. InO(n logn) time we can compute a triangulation withO(n) new points, and no obtuse triangles, that approximates the MWST. We can also approximate the MWST with triangulations having no sharp angles. We generalize some of our results to higher-dimensional triangulation problems. No previous polynomial-time triangulation algorithm was known to approximate the MWST within a factor better thanO(logn).     

一类三角域上的三次样条插值(英文)

In this paper, we consider spaces of cubic C^1-spline on a class of triangulations. By using the inductive algorithm, the posed Lagrange interpolation sets are constructed for cubic spline space. It is shown that the class of triangulations considered in this paper are nonsingular for S1/3 spaces. Moreover, the dimensions of those spaces exactly equal to L. L. Schuraaker＇s low bounds of the dimensions. At the end of this paper, we present an approach to construct triangulations from any scattered planar points, which ensures that the obtained triangulations for S1/3 space are nonsingular.     

Flip Graphs of Bounded Degree Triangulations

We study flip graphs of triangulations whose maximum vertex degree is bounded by a constant k. In particular, we consider triangulations of sets of n points in convex position in the plane and prove that their flip graph is connected if and only if k > 6; the diameter of the flip graph is O(n ²). We also show that, for general point sets, flip graphs of pointed pseudo-triangulations can be disconnected for k ≤ 9, and flip graphs of triangulations can be disconnected for any k. Additionally, we consider a relaxed version of the original problem. We allow the violation of the degree bound k by a small constant. Any two triangulations with maximum degree at most k of a convex point set are connected in the flip graph by a path of length O(n log n), where every intermediate triangulation has maximum degree at most k + 4.     

A non-continuous “steiner point”

A new function is constructed on the space of compact, convex sets which has all the standard properties of the Steiner point except for continuity. Research supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF GP 19428).     

Monochromatic geometric k-factors in red-blue sets with white and Steiner points

We study the existence of monochromatic planar geometric k-factors on sets of red and blue points. When it is not possible to find a k-factor we make use of auxiliary points: white points, whose position is given as a datum and which color is free; and Steiner points whose position and color is free. We present bounds on the number of white and/or Steiner points necessary and/or sufficient to draw a monochromatic planar geometric k-factor.     

Triangulations intersect nicely

We show that there is a matching between the edges of any two triangulations of a planar point set such that an edge of one triangulation is matched either to the identical edge in the other triangulation or to an edge that crosses it. This theorem also holds for the triangles of the triangulations and in general independence systems. As an application, we give some lower bounds for the minimum-weight triangulation which can be computed in polynomial time by matching and network-flow techniques. We exhibit an easy-to-recognize class of point sets for which the minimum-weight triangulation coincides with the greedy triangulation.     

Approximations for two variants of the Steiner tree problem in the Euclidean plane {\mathbb{R}^2}

Given n terminals in the Euclidean plane and a positive constant l, find a Steiner tree T interconnecting all terminals with the minimum total cost of Steiner points and a specific material used to construct all edges in T such that the Euclidean length of each edge in T is no more than l. In this paper, according to the cost b of each Steiner point and the different costs of some specific materials with the different lengths, we study two variants of the Steiner tree problem in the Euclidean plane as follows: (1) If a specific material to construct all edges in such a Steiner tree has its infinite length and the cost of per unit length of such a specific material used is c ₁, the objective is to minimize the total cost of the Steiner points and such a specific material used to construct all edges in T, i.e., ${{\rm min} \{b \cdot k_1+ c_1 \cdot \sum_{e \in T} w(e)\}}$ , where T is a Steiner tree constructed, k ₁ is the number of Steiner points and w(e) is the length of part cut from such a specific material to construct edge e in T, and we call this version as the minimum-cost Steiner points and edges problem (MCSPE, for short). (2) If a specific material to construct all edges in such a Steiner tree has its finite length L (l ≤ L) and the cost of per piece of such a specific material used is c ₂, the objective is to minimize the total cost of the Steiner points and the pieces of such a specific material used to construct all edges in T, i.e., ${{\rm min} \{b \cdot k_2+ c_2 \cdot k_3\}}$ , where T is a Steiner tree constructed, k ₂ is the number of Steiner points in T and k ₃ is the number of pieces of such a specific material used, and we call this version as the minimum-cost Steiner points and pieces of specific material problem (MCSPPSM, for short). These two variants of the Steiner tree problem are NP-hard with some applications in VLSI design, WDM optical networks and wireless communications. In this paper, we first design an approximation algorithm with performance ratio 3 for the MCSPE problem, and then present two approximation algorithms with performance ratios 4 and 3.236 for the MCSPPSM problem, respectively.     

Curvature Measures and Random Sets,I

The paper deals with signed curvature measures as introduced by Federer for sets with positive reach. An integral representation and a local Steiner formula for these measures are given. The main result is the additive extension of the curvature measures to locally finite unions of compatible sets with positive reach. Within this comprehensive class of subsets of R^d a generalized Steiner polynomial (local version) and section theorems (principal kinematic formula, Crofton formula) for the curvature measures are derived.     

The Number of Geometric Bistellar Neighbors of a Triangulation

The theory of secondary and fiber polytopes implies that regular (also called convex or coherent) triangulations of configurations with n points in R ^d have at least n-d-1 geometric bistellar neighbors. Here we prove that, in fact, all triangulations of n points in R ² have at least n-3 geometric bistellar neighbors. In a similar way, we show that for three-dimensional point configurations, in convex position and with no three points collinear, all triangulations have at least n-4 geometric bistellar flips. In contrast, we exhibit three-dimensional point configurations, with a single interior point, having deficiency on the number of geometric bistellar flips. A lifting technique allows us to obtain a triangulation of a simplicial convex 4-polytope with less than n-5 neighbors. We also construct a family of point configurations in R ³ with arbitrarily large flip deficiency. Received November 25, 1996, and in revised form March 10, 1997.     

On the maximal number of pairwise orthogonal Steiner triple systems

For some time it has been known that for prime powers p^k = 1 + 3 · 2^st there exists a pair of orthogonal Steiner triple systems of order p^k. In fact, such a pair can be constructed using the method of Mullin and Nemeth for constructing strong starters. We use a generalization of the construction of Mullin and Nemeth to construct sets of mutually orthogonal Steiner triple systems for many of these prime powers. By using other techniques we show that a set of mutually orthogonal Steiner triple systems of any given size can be constructed for all but a finite number of such prime powers.     

Measures for comparing discrete models of single-valued surfaces

The problem of comparing surfaces unambiguously projected on a plane and represented by clouds of points with three-dimensional coordinates is considered. This problem can be reduced to the problem of comparing functions of two variables determined on different finite sets of points, i.e., on nodes of different grids. A new measure for comparing such surfaces and a new numerically efficient algorithm for calculating them are proposed for the general case in which both grids are unstructured and can have different densities. The linear (with respect to the number of points in two grids) estimate of the complexity of the algorithm for calculating the introduced measure, based on two Delaunay triangulations of the initial sets of points, is proved.     

Steiner trees for fixed orientation metrics

We consider the problem of constructing Steiner minimum trees for a metric defined by a polygonal unit circle (corresponding to σ ≥ 2 weighted legal orientations in the plane). A linear-time algorithm to enumerate all angle configurations for degree three Steiner points is given. We provide a simple proof that the angle configuration for a Steiner point extends to all Steiner points in a full Steiner minimum tree, such that at most six orientations suffice for edges in a full Steiner minimum tree. We show that the concept of canonical forms originally introduced for the uniform orientation metric generalises to the fixed orientation metric. Finally, we give an O(σ n) time algorithm to compute a Steiner minimum tree for a given full Steiner topology with n terminal leaves.     

Steiner minimal trees for bar waves

A Steiner minimal tree (SMT) for a set of pointsP in the plane is a shortest network interconnectingP. The construction of a SMT for a general setP is known to be anNP-complete problem. Recently, SMTs have been constructed for special setsP such as ladders, splitting trees, zigzag lines and co-circular points. In this paper we study SMTs for a wide class of point-sets called mild bar wave. We show that a SMT for a mild bar wave must assume a special form, thus the number of trees needed to be inspected is greatly reduced. Furthermore if a mild bar wave is also a mild rectangular wave, then we produce a Steiner tree constructible in linear time whose length can exceed that of a SMT by an amount bounded by the difference in heights of the two endpoints of the rectangular wave, thus independent of the number of points. When a rectangular wave satisfies some other conditions (including ladders as special cases), then the Steiner tree we produced is indeed a SMT.     

A Linear Bound on the Complexity of the Delaunay Triangulation of Points on Polyhedral Surfaces

Delaunay triangulations and Voronoi diagrams have found numerous applications in surface modeling, surface mesh generation, deformable surface modeling and surface reconstruction. Many algorithms in these applications begin by constructing the three-dimensional Delaunay triangulation of a finite set of points scattered over a surface. Their running-time therefore depends on the complexity of the Delaunay triangulation of such point sets. Although the complexity of the Delaunay triangulation of points in R³ may be quadratic in the worst case, we show in this paper that it is only linear when the points are distributed on a fixed set of well-sampled facets of R³ (e.g. the planar polygons in a polyhedron). Our bound is deterministic and the constants are explicitly given.     

Point Code Minimum Steiner Triple Systems

The point code of a Steiner triple system uniquely determines the system when the number of vectors whose weight equals the replication number agrees with the number of points. The existence of a Steiner triple system with this minimum point code property is established for all v 1,3 (mod 6) with v 15.     

Two Heuristics for the Euclidean Steiner Tree Problem

The Euclidean Steiner tree problem is to find the tree with minimal Euclidean length spanning a set of fixed points in the plane, allowing the addition of auxiliary points to the set (Steiner points). The problem is NP-hard, so polynomial-time heuristics are desired. We present two such heuristics, both of which utilize an efficient method for computing a locally optimal tree with a given topology. The first systematically inserts Steiner points between edges of the minimal spanning tree meeting at angles less than 120 degrees, performing a local optimization at the end. The second begins by finding the Steiner tree for three of the fixed points. Then, at each iteration, it introduces a new fixed point to the tree, connecting it to each possible edge by inserting a Steiner point, and minimizes over all connections, performing a local optimization for each. We present a variety of test cases that demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of both algorithms. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.