Given a finite set of points P sampling an unknown smooth surface ℳ ⊆ ℝ³, our goal is to triangulate ℳ based solely on P. Assuming ℳ is a smooth orientable submanifold of codimension 1 in ℝ^d, we introduce a simple algorithm, Naive Squash, which simplifies the α-complex of P by repeatedly applying a new type of collapse called vertical relative to ℳ. Naive Squash also has a practical version that does not require knowledge of ℳ. We establish conditions under which both the naive and practical Squash algorithms output a triangulation of ℳ. We provide a bound on the angle formed by triangles in the α-complex with ℳ, yielding sampling conditions on P that are competitive with existing literature for smooth surfaces embedded in ℝ³, while offering a more compartmentalized proof. As a by-product, we obtain that the restricted Delaunay complex of P triangulates ℳ when ℳ is a smooth surface in ℝ³ under weaker conditions than existing ones.
@InProceedings{attali_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.11, author = {Attali, Dominique and Cl\'{e}mot, Matt\'{e}o and Dornelas, Bianca B. and Lieutier, Andr\'{e}}, title = {{When Alpha-Complexes Collapse onto Codimension-1 Submanifolds}}, booktitle = {41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)}, pages = {11:1--11:19}, series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)}, ISBN = {978-3-95977-370-6}, ISSN = {1868-8969}, year = {2025}, volume = {332}, editor = {Aichholzer, Oswin and Wang, Haitao}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik}, address = {Dagstuhl, Germany}, URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.11}, URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231630}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.11}, annote = {Keywords: Submanifold reconstruction, triangulation, abstract simplicial complexes, collapses, convexity} }
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