Region-Fault Tolerant Geometric Spanners

We introduce the concept of region-fault tolerant spanners for planar point sets and prove the existence of region-fault tolerant spanners of small size. For a geometric graph on a point set P and a region F, we define to be what remains of after the vertices and edges of intersecting F have been removed. A  -fault tolerant t-spanner is a geometric graph  on P such that for any convex region F, the graph is a t-spanner for , where is the complete geometric graph on P. We prove that any set P of n points admits a -fault tolerant (1+ε)-spanner of size for any constant ε>0; if adding Steiner points is allowed, then the size of the spanner reduces to  , and for several special cases, we show how to obtain region-fault tolerant spanners of size without using Steiner points. We also consider fault-tolerant geodesic t -spanners: this is a variant where, for any disk D, the distance in between any two points u,v∈P∖D is at most t times the geodesic distance between u and v in ℝ²∖D. We prove that for any P, we can add Steiner points to obtain a fault-tolerant geodesic (1+ε)-spanner of size  . M.A. Abam was supported by the Netherlands’ Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under project no. 612.065.307 and by the MADALGO Center for Massive Data Algorithmics, a Center of the Danish National Research Foundation. M. de Berg was supported by the Netherlands’ Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under project no. 639.023.301. M. Farshi was supported by Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of I.R. Iran. NICTA is funded by the Australian Government as represented by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Australian Research Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence program.     

Improved bounds on weak ε-nets for convex sets

LetS be a set ofn points in ℝ ^d . A setW is aweak ε-net for (convex ranges of)S if, for anyT⊆S containing εn points, the convex hull ofT intersectsW. We show the existence of weak ε-nets of size , whereβ ₂=0,β ₃=1, andβ _d ≈0.149·2 ^d-1(d-1)!, improving a previous bound of Alonet al. Such a net can be computed effectively. We also consider two special cases: whenS is a planar point set in convex position, we prove the existence of a net of sizeO((1/ε) log^1.6(1/ε)). In the case whereS consists of the vertices of a regular polygon, we use an argument from hyperbolic geometry to exhibit an optimal net of sizeO(1/ε), which improves a previous bound of Capoyleas. Work by Bernard Chazelle has been supported by NSF Grant CCR-90-02352 and the Geometry Center. Work by Herbert Edelsbrunner has been supported by NSF Grant CCR-89-21421. Work by Michelangelo Grigni has been supported by NSERC Operating Grants and NSF Grant DMS-9206251. Work by Leonidas Guibas and Micha Sharir has been supported by a grant from the U.S.-Israeli Binational Science Foundation. Work by Emo Welzl and Micha Sharir has been supported by a grant from the G.I.F., the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development. Work by Micha Sharir has also been supported by NSF Grant CCR-91-22103, and by a grant from the Fund for Basic Research administered by the Israeli Academy of Sciences.     

Robust Shape Fitting via Peeling and Grating Coresets

Let P be a set of n points in ℝ ^d . A subset of P is called a (k,ε)-kernel if for every direction, the directional width of ε-approximates that of P, when k “outliers” can be ignored in that direction. We show that a (k,ε)-kernel of P of size O(k/ε ^(d−1)/2) can be computed in time O(n+k ²/ε ^d−1). The new algorithm works by repeatedly “peeling” away (0,ε)-kernels from the point set. We also present a simple ε-approximation algorithm for fitting various shapes through a set of points with at most k outliers. The algorithm is incremental and works by repeatedly “grating” critical points into a working set, till the working set provides the required approximation. We prove that the size of the working set is independent of n, and thus results in a simple and practical, near-linear ε-approximation algorithm for shape fitting with outliers in low dimensions. We demonstrate the practicality of our algorithms by showing their empirical performance on various inputs and problems. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in Proceedings of the 17th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, pp. 182–191. P.A. and H.Y. are supported by NSF under grants CCR-00-86013, EIA-01-31905, CCR-02-04118, and DEB-04-25465, by ARO grants W911NF-04-1-0278 and DAAD19-03-1-0352, and by a grant from the U.S.–Israel Binational Science Foundation. S.H.-P. is supported by a NSF CAREER award CCR-0132901.     

Diameter,width, closest line pair,and parametric searching

We apply Megiddo's parametric searching technique to several geometric optimization problems and derive significantly improved solutions for them. We obtain, for any fixed ε>0, anO(n ^1+ε) algorithm for computing the diameter of a point set in 3-space, anO(^8/5+ε) algorithm for computing the width of such a set, and onO(n ^8/5+ε) algorithm for computing the closest pair in a set ofn lines in space. All these algorithms are deterministic. Work by Bernard Chazelle was supported by NSF Grant CCR-90-02352. Work by Herbert Edelsbrunner was supported by NSF Grant CCR-89-21421. Work by Leonidas Guibas and Micha Sharir was supported by a grant from the U.S.-Israeli Binational Science Foundation. Work by Micha Sharir was also supported by ONR Grant N00014-90-J-1284, by NSF Grant CCR-89-01484, and by grants from the Fund for Basic Research administered by the Israeli Academy of Sciences, and the G.I.F., the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development.     

Dimension of the Torelli group for Out(F<Subscript>n</Subscript>)

Let be the kernel of the natural map Out(F_n)→GL_n(ℤ). We use combinatorial Morse theory to prove that has an Eilenberg–MacLane space which is (2n-4)-dimensional and that is not finitely generated (n≥3). In particular, this shows that the cohomological dimension of is equal to 2n-4 and recovers the result of Krstić–McCool that is not finitely presented. We also give a new proof of the fact, due to Magnus, that is finitely generated.     

Shellable Complexes and Topology of Diagonal Arrangements

We prove that if a simplicial complex Δ is shellable, then the intersection lattice L _Δ for the corresponding diagonal arrangement is homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres. Furthermore, we describe precisely the spheres in the wedge, based on the data of shelling. Also, we give some examples of diagonal arrangements  where the complement is K(π,1), coming from rank-3 matroids. This work forms part of the author’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota, supervised by Vic Reiner, and partially supported by NSF grant DMS-0245379.     

Distribution of values of bounded generalized polynomials

A generalized polynomial is a real-valued function which is obtained from conventional polynomials by the use of the operations of addition, multiplication, and taking the integer part; a generalized polynomial mapping is a vector-valued mapping whose coordinates are generalized polynomials. We show that any bounded generalized polynomial mapping u: Z ^d  → R ^l has a representation u(n) = f(ϕ(n)x), n ∈ Z ^d , where f is a piecewise polynomial function on a compact nilmanifold X, x ∈ X, and ϕ is an ergodic Z ^d -action by translations on X. This fact is used to show that the sequence u(n), n ∈ Z ^d , is well distributed on a piecewise polynomial surface (with respect to the Borel measure on that is the image of the Lebesgue measure under the piecewise polynomial function defining ). As corollaries we also obtain a von Neumann-type ergodic theorem along generalized polynomials and a result on Diophantine approximations extending the work of van der Corput and of Furstenberg–Weiss.     

Computing Minimum-Volume Enclosing Axis-Aligned Ellipsoids

Given a set of points and ε>0, we propose and analyze an algorithm for the problem of computing a (1+ε)-approximation to the minimum-volume axis-aligned ellipsoid enclosing . We establish that our algorithm is polynomial for fixed ε. In addition, the algorithm returns a small core set , whose size is independent of the number of points m, with the property that the minimum-volume axis-aligned ellipsoid enclosing is a good approximation of the minimum-volume axis-aligned ellipsoid enclosing . Our computational results indicate that the algorithm exhibits significantly better performance than the theoretical worst-case complexity estimate. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation through CAREER Grants CCF-0643593 and DMI-0237415.     

On the Number of Topological Types Occurring in a Parameterized Family of Arrangements

Let be an o-minimal structure over ℝ, a closed definable set, and

Primitive Ideals and Automorphisms of Quantum Matrices

Let be a field and q be a nonzero element of that is not a root of unity. We give a criterion for 〈0〉 to be a primitive ideal of the algebra of quantum matrices. Next, we describe all height one primes of ; these two problems are actually interlinked since it turns out that 〈0〉 is a primitive ideal of whenever has only finitely many height one primes. Finally, we compute the automorphism group of in the case where m ≠ n. In order to do this, we first study the action of this group on the prime spectrum of . Then, by using the preferred basis of and PBW bases, we prove that the automorphism group of is isomorphic to the torus when m ≠ n and (m,n) ≠ (1, 3),(3, 1). This research was supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship within the 6th European Community Framework Programme and by Leverhulme Research Interchange Grant F/00158/X.     

A Mean-Value Inequality for Non-negative Solutions to the Linearized Monge–Ampère Equation

We prove a mean value inequality for non-negative solutions to in any domain Ω ⊂ ℝ ⁿ , where is the Monge–Ampère operator linearized at a convex function ϕ, under minimal assumptions on the Monge–Ampère measure of ϕ. An application to the Harnack inequality for affine maximal hypersurfaces is included.      

Traversing a Set of Points with a Minimum Number of Turns

Given a finite set of points S in ℝ ^d , consider visiting the points in S with a polygonal path which makes a minimum number of turns, or equivalently, has the minimum number of segments (links). We call this minimization problem the minimum link spanning path problem. This natural problem has appeared several times in the literature under different variants. The simplest one is that in which the allowed paths are axis-aligned. Let L(S) be the minimum number of links of an axis-aligned path for S, and let G _n ^d be an n×…×n grid in ℤ ^d . Kranakis et al. (Ars Comb. 38:177–192, 1994) showed that L(G _n ²)=2n−1 and and conjectured that, for all d≥3, We prove the conjecture for d=3 by showing the lower bound for L(G _n ³). For d=4, we prove that For general d, we give new estimates on L(G _n ^d ) that are very close to the conjectured value. The new lower bound of improves previous result by Collins and Moret (Inf. Process. Lett. 68:317–319, 1998), while the new upper bound of differs from the conjectured value only in the lower order terms. For arbitrary point sets, we include an exact bound on the minimum number of links needed in an axis-aligned path traversing any planar n-point set. We obtain similar tight estimates (within 1) in any number of dimensions d. For the general problem of traversing an arbitrary set of points in ℝ ^d with an axis-aligned spanning path having a minimum number of links, we present a constant ratio (depending on the dimension d) approximation algorithm. Work by A. Dumitrescu was partially supported by NSF CAREER grant CCF-0444188. Work by F. Hurtado was partially supported by projects MECMTM2006-01267 and Gen. Cat. 2005SGR00692. Work by P. Valtr was partially supported by the project 1M0545 of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic.     

Module Arens regularity for semigroup algebras

We extend the concept of Arens regularity of a Banach algebra to the case that there is an -module structure on , and show that when S is an inverse semigroup with totally ordered subsemigroup E of idempotents, then A=ℓ ¹(S) is module Arens regular if and only if an appropriate group homomorphic image of S is finite. When S is a discrete group, this is just Young’s theorem which asserts that ℓ ¹(S) is Arens regular if and only if S is finite. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Bounded universal functions for sequences of holomorphic self-maps of the disk

We give several characterizations of those sequences of holomorphic self-maps {φ _n } _n≥1 of the unit disk for which there exists a function F in the unit ball of H ^∞ such that the orbit {F∘φ _n :n∈ℕ} is locally uniformly dense in . Such a function F is said to be a -universal function. One of our conditions is stated in terms of the hyperbolic derivatives of the functions φ _n . As a consequence we will see that if φ _n is the nth iterate of a map φ of into , then {φ _n } _n≥1 admits a -universal function if and only if φ is a parabolic or hyperbolic automorphism of . We show that whenever there exists a -universal function, then this function can be chosen to be a Blaschke product. Further, if there is a -universal function, we show that there exist uniformly closed subspaces consisting entirely of universal functions.     

( m,n)-Equidista nt Sets i n $\ mathbb{R}^{k},\ mathbb{S}^{k}$ , a nd ℙk

We call a metric space X (m,n)-equidistant if, when A⊆X has exactly m points, there are exactly n points in X each of which is equidistant from (the points of) A. We prove that, for k≥2, the Euclidean space ℝ ^k contains an (m,1)-equidistant set if and only if k≥m. Although the sphere is (3,2)-equidistant, and ℝ⁴ contain no (4,2)-equidistant sets. We discuss related results about projective spaces, and state a conjecture about analogous to the Double Midset Conjecture.     

A Conditional 0–1 Law for the Symmetric <Emphasis Type="Italic">σ</Emphasis>-field

Let (Ω,ℬ,P) be a probability space, a sub-σ-field, and μ a regular conditional distribution for P given . For various, classically interesting, choices of (including tail and symmetric), we prove the following 0–1 law: There is a set such that P(A ₀)=1 and μ(ω)(A)∈{0,1} for all and ω∈A ₀. If ℬ is countably generated (and certain regular conditional distributions exist), the result applies whatever P is.      

Relations between different types of spectra and spectral characterizations

In the study of the asymptotic behaviour of solutions of differential-difference equations the -spectrum has been useful, where and implies Fourier transform , with given , φ∈L ^∞(ℝ,X), X a Banach space, (half)line. Here we study and related concepts, give relations between them, especially weak Laplace half-line spectrum of φ, and thus ⊂ classical Beurling spectrum = Carleman spectrum =  ; also  = Beurling spectrum of “φ modulo ” (Chill-Fasangova). If satisfies a Loomis type condition (L _U ), then countable and uniformly continuous ∈U are shown to imply ; here (L _U ) usually means , indefinite integral Pf of f in U imply Pf in (the Bohl-Bohr theorem for = almost periodic functions, U=bounded functions). This spectral characterization and other results are extended to unbounded functions via mean classes , ℳ ^m U ((2.1) below) and even to distributions, generalizing various recent results for uniformly continuous bounded φ. Furthermore for solutions of convolution systems S*φ=b with in some we show . With these above results, one gets generalizations of earlier results on the asymptotic behaviour of solutions of neutral integro-differential-difference systems. Also many examples and special cases are discussed.     

On Approximate Range Counting and Depth

We improve the previous results by Aronov and Har-Peled (SODA’05) and Kaplan and Sharir (SODA’06) and present a randomized data structure of O(n) expected size which can answer 3D approximate halfspace range counting queries in expected time, where k is the actual value of the count. This is the first optimal method for the problem in the standard decision tree model; moreover, unlike previous methods, the new method is Las Vegas instead of Monte Carlo. In addition, we describe new results for several related problems, including approximate Tukey depth queries in 3D, approximate regression depth queries in 2D, and approximate linear programming with violations in low dimensions. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in Proc. 23rd Sympos. Comput. Geom., pp. 337–343, 2007. Work of the second author was supported by NSERC.