25 Search Results for "Chang, Hsien-Chih"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.24
Single-Criteria Metric r-Dominating Set Problem via Minor-Preserving Support

Authors: Reilly Browne and Hsien-Chih Chang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 367, 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)

Abstract
Given an unweighted graph G, the minimum r-dominating set problem asks for a subset of vertices S of the smallest cardinality, such that every vertex in G is within radius r to some vertex in S. While the r-dominating set problem on planar graph admits PTAS from Baker’s shifting/layering technique when r is a constant, the problem becomes significantly harder when r can depend on n. In fact, under Exponential-Time Hypothesis, Fox-Epstein ηl [SODA 2019] observed that no efficient PTAS can exist for the unbounded r-dominating set problem on planar graphs. One may consider even harder weighted-variant known as the vertex-weighted metric r-dominating set, where edges are associated with lengths, and every vertex is associated with a positive-valued weight, and the goal is to compute an r-dominating set with minimum total weight. As a result, people resorted to bicriteria algorithms by allowing the returned solution to use radius-(1+ε)r balls instead, in addition to the total weight being a 1+ε approximation to the optimal value. We establish the first single-criteria polynomial-time O(1)-approximation algorithm for the vertex-weighted metric r-dominating set problem on planar graphs when r is part of the input, and can be arbitrarily large compared to n. Our new (single-criteria) O(1)-approximation algorithm uses the quasi-uniformity sampling technique of Chan et al. [SODA 2012] by bounding the shallow cell complexity of the (unbounded) radius-r ball system to be linear in n. To this end we have two technical innovations: 1) The discrete ball system on planar graphs are neither pseudodisks nor have well-defined boundaries for standard union-complexity arguments. We construct a support graph for arbitrary distance ball systems as contractions of Voronoi cells; the sparseness comes as a byproduct. 2) We present an assignment of each depth-(≥3) cell to a unique 3-tuple of ball centers. This allows us to use standard Clarkson-Shor techniques to reduce the counting to cells of depth exactly 3, which we prove to be size O(n) by a novel geometric argument based on our support being a Voronoi contraction.
Cite as

Reilly Browne and Hsien-Chih Chang. Single-Criteria Metric r-Dominating Set Problem via Minor-Preserving Support. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 24:1-24:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{browne_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.24,
  author =	{Browne, Reilly and Chang, Hsien-Chih},
  title =	{{Single-Criteria Metric r-Dominating Set Problem via Minor-Preserving Support}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-418-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{367},
  editor =	{Ahn, Hee-Kap and Hoffmann, Michael and Nayyeri, Amir},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258300},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: Minimum dominating set, planar graphs, shallow cell complexity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.29
Charting the Diameter Computation Landscape of Intersection Graphs in 3D and Above

Authors: Timothy M. Chan, Hsien-Chih Chang, Jie Gao, Sándor Kisfaludi-Bak, Hung Le, and Da Wei Zheng

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 367, 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)

Abstract
Recent research on computing the diameter of geometric intersection graphs has made significant strides, primarily focusing on the 2D case [Duraj et al., 2024; Hsien-Chih Chang et al., 2024; Chan et al., 2025] where truly subquadratic-time algorithms were given for simple objects such as unit-disks and (axis-aligned) squares. However, in three or higher dimensions, there is no known truly subquadratic-time algorithm for any intersection graph of non-trivial objects, even basic ones such as unit balls or (axis-aligned) unit cubes. This was partially explained by the pioneering work of Bringmann et al. [Karl Bringmann et al., 2022] which gave several truly subquadratic lower bounds, notably for unit balls or unit cubes in 3D when the graph diameter Δ is at least Ω(log n), hinting at a pessimistic outlook for the complexity of the diameter problem in higher dimensions. In this paper, we substantially extend the landscape of diameter computation for objects in three and higher dimensions, giving a few positive results. Our highlighted findings include: 1) A truly subquadratic-time algorithm for deciding if the diameter of unit cubes in 3D is at most 3 (Diameter-3 hereafter), the first algorithm of its kind for objects in 3D or higher dimensions. Our algorithm is based on a novel connection to pseudolines, which is of independent interest. 2) A truly subquadratic time lower bound for Diameter-3 of unit balls in 3D under the Orthogonal Vector (OV) hypothesis, giving the first separation between unit balls and unit cubes in the small diameter regime. Previously, computing the diameter for both objects was known to be quadratic hard when the diameter is Ω(log n) [Karl Bringmann et al., 2022]. 3) A near-linear-time algorithm for Diameter-2 of unit cubes in 3D, generalizing the previous result for unit squares in 2D [Karl Bringmann et al., 2022]. 4) A truly subquadratic-time algorithm and lower bound for Diameter-2 and Diameter-3 of rectangular boxes (of arbitrary dimension and sizes), respectively.
Cite as

Timothy M. Chan, Hsien-Chih Chang, Jie Gao, Sándor Kisfaludi-Bak, Hung Le, and Da Wei Zheng. Charting the Diameter Computation Landscape of Intersection Graphs in 3D and Above. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 29:1-29:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{chan_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.29,
  author =	{Chan, Timothy M. and Chang, Hsien-Chih and Gao, Jie and Kisfaludi-Bak, S\'{a}ndor and Le, Hung and Zheng, Da Wei},
  title =	{{Charting the Diameter Computation Landscape of Intersection Graphs in 3D and Above}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{29:1--29:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-418-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{367},
  editor =	{Ahn, Hee-Kap and Hoffmann, Michael and Nayyeri, Amir},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.29},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258357},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.29},
  annote =	{Keywords: Graph Diameter, Geometric Intersection Graphs, Unit Ball Graphs}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38
Lower Bounds on Tree Covers

Authors: Yu Chen, Zihan Tan, and Hangyu Xu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract
Given an n-point metric space (X,d_X), a tree cover 𝒯 is a set of |𝒯| = k trees on X such that every pair of vertices in X has a low-distortion path in one of the trees in 𝒯. Tree covers have been playing a crucial role in graph algorithms for decades, and the research focus is the construction of tree covers with small size k and distortion. When k = 1, the best distortion is known to be Θ(n). For a constant k ≥ 2, the best distortion upper bound is Õ(n^{1/k}) and the strongest lower bound is Ω(log_k n), leaving a gap to be closed. In this paper, we improve the lower bound to Ω(n^{1/(2^{k-1)}}). Our proof is a novel analysis on a structurally simple grid-like graph, which utilizes some combinatorial fixed-point theorems. We believe that they will prove useful for analyzing other tree-like data structures as well.
Cite as

Yu Chen, Zihan Tan, and Hangyu Xu. Lower Bounds on Tree Covers. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 38:1-38:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38,
  author =	{Chen, Yu and Tan, Zihan and Xu, Hangyu},
  title =	{{Lower Bounds on Tree Covers}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{38:1--38:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253254},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: Tree Covers, Combinatorial Fixed-Point Theorems}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.12
Star-Based Separators for Intersection Graphs of c-Colored Pseudo-Segments

Authors: Mark de Berg, Bart M. P. Jansen, and Jeroen S. K. Lamme

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 359, 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)

Abstract
The Planar Separator Theorem, which states that any planar graph 𝒢 has a separator consisting of O(√n) nodes whose removal partitions 𝒢 into components of size at most 2n/3, is a widely used tool to obtain fast algorithms on planar graphs. Intersection graphs of disks, which generalize planar graphs, do not admit such separators. It has recently been shown that disk graphs do admit so-called clique-based separators that consist of O(√n) cliques. This result has been generalized to intersection graphs of various other types of disk-like objects. Unfortunately, segment intersection graphs do not admit small clique-based separators, because they can contain arbitrarily large bicliques. This is true even in the simple case of axis-aligned segments. In this paper we therefore introduce biclique-based separators (and, in particular, star-based separators), which are separators consisting of a small number of bicliques (or stars). We prove that any c-oriented set of n segments in the plane, where c is a constant, admits a star-based separator consisting of O(√n) stars. In fact, our result is more general, as it applies to any set of n pseudo-segments that is partitioned into c subsets such that the pseudo-segments in the same subset are pairwise disjoint. We extend our result to intersection graphs of c-oriented polygons. These results immediately lead to an almost-exact distance oracle for such intersection graphs, which has O(n√n) storage and O(√n) query time, and that can report the hop-distance between any two query nodes in the intersection graph with an additive error of at most 2. This is the first distance oracle for such types of intersection graphs that has subquadratic storage and sublinear query time and that only has an additive error.
Cite as

Mark de Berg, Bart M. P. Jansen, and Jeroen S. K. Lamme. Star-Based Separators for Intersection Graphs of c-Colored Pseudo-Segments. In 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 359, pp. 12:1-12:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{deberg_et_al:LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.12,
  author =	{de Berg, Mark and Jansen, Bart M. P. and Lamme, Jeroen S. K.},
  title =	{{Star-Based Separators for Intersection Graphs of c-Colored Pseudo-Segments}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)},
  pages =	{12:1--12:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-408-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{359},
  editor =	{Chen, Ho-Lin and Hon, Wing-Kai and Tsai, Meng-Tsung},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-249207},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: Computational geometry, intersection graphs, biclique-based separators, distance oracles}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.GD.2025.36
Reconfiguration in Curve Arrangements to Reduce Self-Intersections and Popular Faces

Authors: Florestan Brunck, Hsien-Chih Chang, Maarten Löffler, Tim Ophelders, and Lena Schlipf

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 357, 33rd International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2025)

Abstract
We study reconfiguration in curve arrangements, where a subset of the crossings are marked as switches which have three possible states, and the goal is to set the switches such that the resulting curve arrangement has few self-intersections, or few faces that are incident to the same curve multiple times (a.k.a. popular faces). Our results are that these problems are NP-hard, but FPT in the number of switches. Minimizing self-intersections is also FPT in the number of non-switchable crossings; for minimizing popular faces this problem remains open. Our results can be applied to generating curved nonograms, a type of logic puzzle that has received some attention lately. Specifically, our results make it possible to efficiently convert expert puzzles into advanced puzzles (or determine that this is impossible).
Cite as

Florestan Brunck, Hsien-Chih Chang, Maarten Löffler, Tim Ophelders, and Lena Schlipf. Reconfiguration in Curve Arrangements to Reduce Self-Intersections and Popular Faces. In 33rd International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 357, pp. 36:1-36:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{brunck_et_al:LIPIcs.GD.2025.36,
  author =	{Brunck, Florestan and Chang, Hsien-Chih and L\"{o}ffler, Maarten and Ophelders, Tim and Schlipf, Lena},
  title =	{{Reconfiguration in Curve Arrangements to Reduce Self-Intersections and Popular Faces}},
  booktitle =	{33rd International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2025)},
  pages =	{36:1--36:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-403-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{357},
  editor =	{Dujmovi\'{c}, Vida and Montecchiani, Fabrizio},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.GD.2025.36},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-250220},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.GD.2025.36},
  annote =	{Keywords: Curve Arrangements, Reconfiguration, Curve Arrangements, NP-hardness, Fixed-Parameter Tractability, Puzzle Generation}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.39
Going Beyond Surfaces in Diameter Approximation

Authors: Michał Włodarczyk

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)

Abstract
Calculating the diameter of an undirected graph requires quadratic running time under the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis and this barrier works even against any approximation better than 3/2. For planar graphs with positive edge weights, there are known (1+ε)-approximation algorithms with running time poly(1/ε, log n)⋅ n. However, these algorithms rely on shortest path separators and this technique falls short to yield efficient algorithms beyond graphs of bounded genus. In this work we depart from embedding-based arguments and obtain diameter approximations relying on VC set systems and the local treewidth property. We present two orthogonal extensions of the planar case by giving (1+ε)-approximation algorithms with the following running times: - 𝒪_h((1/ε)^𝒪(h) ⋅ nlog² n)-time algorithm for graphs excluding an apex graph of size h as a minor, - 𝒪_d((1/ε)^𝒪(d) ⋅ nlog² n)-time algorithm for the class of d-apex graphs. As a stepping stone, we obtain efficient (1+ε)-approximate distance oracles for graphs excluding an apex graph of size h as a minor. Our oracle has preprocessing time 𝒪_h((1/ε)⁸⋅ nlog nlog W) and query time 𝒪_h((1/ε)²⋅log n log W), where W is the metric stretch. Such oracles have been so far only known for bounded genus graphs. All our algorithms are deterministic.
Cite as

Michał Włodarczyk. Going Beyond Surfaces in Diameter Approximation. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 39:1-39:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{wlodarczyk:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.39,
  author =	{W{\l}odarczyk, Micha{\l}},
  title =	{{Going Beyond Surfaces in Diameter Approximation}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{39:1--39:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.39},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245076},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.39},
  annote =	{Keywords: diameter, approximation, distance oracles, graph minors, treewidth}
}
Document
Invited Talk
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.2
Unintuitive Facts About Distances on Planar Graphs (Invited Talk)

Authors: Hsien-Chih Chang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 349, 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)

Abstract
Conventional wisdom told us that planar graphs are essentially edge-weighted grids, with more or less equal side-lengths. An n-node n^{1/2}-by-n^{1/2} square grid has treewidth Θ(n^{1/2}); and if we want to preserve shortest-path distances between every pair of boundary nodes, intuitively we have to keep all the n^{1/2} column and row paths, which together create n "crossings" that cannot be removed. This seems to suggest that planar graphs are incompressible and not tree-like. Or does it? In this talk we will discuss three unintuitive, and perhaps surprising, facts about planar metrics in the (1+ε)-approximation regime. First we demonstrate how to construct emulator for planar graphs that preserves all-pair distances between k terminals, and has size Õ_ε(k). (This implies, for the grid example above, the resulting emulator has size Õ(n^{1/2}).) Second, planar metrics can be covered using constantly(!) many trees, in the sense that we can construct O(1) many trees independent to the size of the input graph that never shrinks distances, so that given any pair of nodes x and y, there is one tree T that contains both x and y whose distance on T is stretched by at most a 1+ε factor. Along the way we will introduce a novel structure on planar metrics - the gridtrees - that enables such tree covers, as well as its applications in the resolution to the Steiner point removal problem, and in constructing embeddings of planar graphs into polylog-treewidth graphs with (1+ε)-distortion. (Which means, if we are willing to distort the distance by a small amount, planar metrics are very much tree-like.) Finally, we will discuss the issue of spanning. Both results above rely on the fact that the emulator and the tree cover use "Steiner nodes", which are nodes not presented in the original input graph. Maybe this is cheating, and the distance compression is only possible because of these nodes that appear out of nowhere? Our goal is to convince you otherwise: We can in fact construct emulators for planar graphs that are minors, which only uses paths and edges from the input planar graph; and in the case of tree covers, we are one or two new structures away from enforcing the trees to be spanning, that is, the edges in the trees have come from the input graph as well.
Cite as

Hsien-Chih Chang. Unintuitive Facts About Distances on Planar Graphs (Invited Talk). In 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 349, p. 2:1, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{chang:LIPIcs.WADS.2025.2,
  author =	{Chang, Hsien-Chih},
  title =	{{Unintuitive Facts About Distances on Planar Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:1},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-398-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{349},
  editor =	{Morin, Pat and Oh, Eunjin},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-242338},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: planar, emulator, tree cover, gridtree, spanning, sparsifier, tree embedding, clustering, Baker's technique, KPR decomposition, low-diameter decomposition, quadtree, shortest-path separator, portal}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.53
Cut-Preserving Vertex Sparsifiers for Planar and Quasi-Bipartite Graphs

Authors: Yu Chen and Zihan Tan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract
We study vertex sparsification for preserving cuts. Given a graph G with a subset |T| = k of its vertices called terminals, a quality-q cut sparsifier is a graph G' that contains T, such that, for any partition (T₁,T₂) of T into non-empty subsets, the value of the min-cut in G' separating T₁ from T₂ is within factor q from the value of the min-cut in G separating T₁ from T₂. The construction of cut sparsifiers with good (small) quality and size has been a central problem in graph compression for years. Planar graphs and quasi-bipartite graphs are two important special families studied in this research direction. The main results in this paper are new cut sparsifier constructions for them in the high-quality regime (where q = 1 or 1+{ε} for small {ε} > 0). We first show that every planar graph admits a planar quality-(1+{ε}) cut sparsifier of size Õ(k/poly({ε})), which is in sharp contrast with the lower bound of 2^{Ω(k)} for the quality-1 case. We then show that every quasi-bipartite graph admits a quality-1 cut sparsifier of size 2^{Õ(k²)}. This is the second to improve over the doubly-exponential bound for general graphs (previously only planar graphs have been shown to have single-exponential size quality-1 cut sparsifiers). Lastly, we show that contraction, a common approach for constructing cut sparsifiers adopted in most previous works, does not always give optimal bounds for cut sparsifiers. We demonstrate this by showing that the optimal size bound for quality-(1+{ε}) contraction-based cut sparsifiers for quasi-bipartite graphs lies in the range [k^{̃Ω(1/{ε})},k^{O(1/{ε}²)}], while in previous work an upper bound of Õ(k/{ε}²) was achieved via a non-contraction approach.
Cite as

Yu Chen and Zihan Tan. Cut-Preserving Vertex Sparsifiers for Planar and Quasi-Bipartite Graphs. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 53:1-53:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.53,
  author =	{Chen, Yu and Tan, Zihan},
  title =	{{Cut-Preserving Vertex Sparsifiers for Planar and Quasi-Bipartite Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{53:1--53:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.53},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234304},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.53},
  annote =	{Keywords: Termianl Cut, Graph Sparsification}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.30
Light Spanners with Small Hop-Diameter

Authors: Sujoy Bhore and Lazar Milenković

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract
Lightness, sparsity, and hop-diameter are the fundamental parameters of geometric spanners. Arya et al. [STOC'95] showed in their seminal work that there exists a construction of Euclidean (1+ε)-spanners with hop-diameter O(log n) and lightness O(log n). They also gave a general tradeoff of hop-diameter k and sparsity O(α_k(n)), where α_k is a very slowly growing inverse of an Ackermann-style function. The former combination of logarithmic hop-diameter and lightness is optimal due to the lower bound by Dinitz et al. [FOCS'08]. Later, Elkin and Solomon [STOC'13] generalized the light spanner construction to doubling metrics and extended the tradeoff for more values of hop-diameter k. In a recent line of work [SoCG'22, SoCG'23], Le et al. proved that the aforementioned tradeoff between the hop-diameter and sparsity is tight for every choice of hop-diameter k. A fundamental question remains: What is the optimal tradeoff between the hop-diameter and lightness for every value of k? In this paper, we present a general framework for constructing light spanners with small hop-diameter. Our framework is based on tree covers. In particular, we show that if a metric admits a tree cover with γ trees, stretch t, and lightness L, then it also admits a t-spanner with hop-diameter k and lightness O(kn^{2/k}⋅ γ L). Further, we note that the tradeoff for trees is tight due to a construction in uniform line metric, which is perhaps the simplest tree metric. As a direct consequence of this framework, we obtain new tradeoffs between lightness and hop-diameter for doubling metrics.
Cite as

Sujoy Bhore and Lazar Milenković. Light Spanners with Small Hop-Diameter. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 30:1-30:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bhore_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.30,
  author =	{Bhore, Sujoy and Milenkovi\'{c}, Lazar},
  title =	{{Light Spanners with Small Hop-Diameter}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234075},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: Geometric Spanners, Lightness, Hop-Diameter, Recurrences, Lower Bounds}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.18
Finding a Shortest Curve That Separates Few Objects from Many

Authors: Therese Biedl, Éric Colin de Verdière, Fabrizio Frati, Anna Lubiw, and Günter Rote

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
We present a fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) algorithm to find a shortest curve that encloses a set of k required objects in the plane while paying a penalty for enclosing unwanted objects. The input is a set of interior-disjoint simple polygons in the plane, where k of the polygons are required to be enclosed and the remaining optional polygons have non-negative penalties. The goal is to find a closed curve that is disjoint from the polygon interiors and encloses the k required polygons, while minimizing the length of the curve plus the penalties of the enclosed optional polygons. If the penalties are high, the output is a shortest curve that separates the required polygons from the others. The problem is NP-hard if k is not fixed, even in very special cases. The runtime of our algorithm is O(3^k n³), where n is the number of vertices of the input polygons. We extend the result to a graph version of the problem where the input is a connected plane graph with positive edge weights. There are k required faces; the remaining faces are optional and have non-negative penalties. The goal is to find a closed walk in the graph that encloses the k required faces, while minimizing the weight of the walk plus the penalties of the enclosed optional faces. We also consider an inverted version of the problem where the required objects must lie outside the curve. Our algorithms solve some other well-studied problems, such as geometric knapsack.
Cite as

Therese Biedl, Éric Colin de Verdière, Fabrizio Frati, Anna Lubiw, and Günter Rote. Finding a Shortest Curve That Separates Few Objects from Many. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 18:1-18:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{biedl_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.18,
  author =	{Biedl, Therese and Colin de Verdi\`{e}re, \'{E}ric and Frati, Fabrizio and Lubiw, Anna and Rote, G\"{u}nter},
  title =	{{Finding a Shortest Curve That Separates Few Objects from Many}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:16},
  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.2025.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231701},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: Enclosure, curve, separation, weakly simple polygon, Euler tour}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.49
On Sparse Covers of Minor Free Graphs, Low Dimensional Metric Embeddings, and Other Applications

Authors: Arnold Filtser

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
Given a metric space (X,d_X), a (β,s,Δ)-sparse cover is a collection of clusters 𝒞 ⊆ P(X) with diameter at most Δ, such that for every point x ∈ X, the ball B_X(x,Δ/β) is fully contained in some cluster C ∈ 𝒞, and x belongs to at most s clusters in 𝒞. Our main contribution is to show that the shortest path metric of every K_r-minor free graphs admits (O(r),O(r²),Δ)-sparse cover, and for every ε > 0, (4+ε,O(1/ε)^r,Δ)-sparse cover (for arbitrary Δ > 0). We then use this sparse cover to show that every K_r-minor free graph embeds into 𝓁_∞^{Õ(1/ε)^{r+1}⋅log n} with distortion 3+ε (resp. into 𝓁_∞^{Õ(r²)⋅log n} with distortion O(r)). Further, among other applications, this sparse cover immediately implies an algorithm for the oblivious buy-at-bulk problem in fixed minor free graphs with the tight approximation factor O(log n) (previously nothing beyond general graphs was known).
Cite as

Arnold Filtser. On Sparse Covers of Minor Free Graphs, Low Dimensional Metric Embeddings, and Other Applications. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 49:1-49:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{filtser:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.49,
  author =	{Filtser, Arnold},
  title =	{{On Sparse Covers of Minor Free Graphs, Low Dimensional Metric Embeddings, and Other Applications}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{49:1--49:16},
  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.2025.49},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-232015},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.49},
  annote =	{Keywords: Sparse cover, minor free graphs, metric embeddings, 𝓁\underline∞, oblivious buy-at-bulk}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.42
Range Counting Oracles for Geometric Problems

Authors: Anne Driemel, Morteza Monemizadeh, Eunjin Oh, Frank Staals, and David P. Woodruff

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
In this paper, we study estimators for geometric optimization problems in the sublinear geometric model. In this model, we have oracle access to a point set with size n in a discrete space [Δ]^d, where queries can be made to an oracle that responds to orthogonal range counting requests. The query complexity of an optimization problem is measured by the number of oracle queries required to compute an estimator for the problem. We investigate two problems in this framework, the Euclidean Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) and Earth Mover Distance (EMD). For EMD, we show the existence of an estimator that approximates the cost of EMD with O(log Δ)-relative error and O(nΔ/(s^{1+1/d}))-additive error using O(s polylog Δ) range counting queries for any parameter s with 1 ≤ s ≤ n. Moreover, we prove that this bound is tight. For MST, we demonstrate that the weight of MST can be estimated within a factor of (1 ± ε) using Õ(√n) range counting queries.
Cite as

Anne Driemel, Morteza Monemizadeh, Eunjin Oh, Frank Staals, and David P. Woodruff. Range Counting Oracles for Geometric Problems. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 42:1-42:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{driemel_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.42,
  author =	{Driemel, Anne and Monemizadeh, Morteza and Oh, Eunjin and Staals, Frank and Woodruff, David P.},
  title =	{{Range Counting Oracles for Geometric Problems}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{42:1--42:16},
  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.2025.42},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231941},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.42},
  annote =	{Keywords: Range counting oracles, minimum spanning trees, Earth Mover’s Distance}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.77
Dynamic Maximum Depth of Geometric Objects

Authors: Subhash Suri, Jie Xue, Xiongxin Yang, and Jiumu Zhu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
Given a set of geometric objects in the plane (rectangles, squares, disks etc.), its maximum depth (or geometric clique) is the largest number of objects with a common intersection. In this paper, we present data structures for dynamically maintaining the maximum depth under insertions and deletions of geometric objects, with sublinear update time. We achieve the following results: - a 1/k-approximate dynamic maximum-depth data structure for (axis-parallel) rectangles with O(n^{1/(k+1)} log n) amortized update time, for any fixed k ∈ ℤ^+. In particular, when k = 1, this gives an exact data structure for rectangles with O(√n log n) amortized update time, almost matching the best known bound for the offline version of the problem. - a (1/2-ε)-approximate dynamic maximum-depth data structure for disks with n^{2/3} log^{O(1)}n amortized update time, for any constant ε > 0. Having exact data structures for disks with sublinear update time is unlikely, since the static maximum-depth problem for disks is 3SUM-hard and thus does not admit subquadratic-time algorithms.
Cite as

Subhash Suri, Jie Xue, Xiongxin Yang, and Jiumu Zhu. Dynamic Maximum Depth of Geometric Objects. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 77:1-77:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{suri_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.77,
  author =	{Suri, Subhash and Xue, Jie and Yang, Xiongxin and Zhu, Jiumu},
  title =	{{Dynamic Maximum Depth of Geometric Objects}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{77:1--77:13},
  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.2025.77},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-232295},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.77},
  annote =	{Keywords: dynamic algorithms, maximum depth}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.67
Hard Diagrams of Split Links

Authors: Corentin Lunel, Arnaud de Mesmay, and Jonathan Spreer

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
Deformations of knots and links in ambient space can be studied combinatorially on their diagrams via local modifications called Reidemeister moves. While it is well-known that, in order to move between equivalent diagrams with Reidemeister moves, one sometimes needs to insert excess crossings, there are significant gaps between the best known lower and upper bounds on the required number of these added crossings. In this article, we study the problem of turning a diagram of a split link into a split diagram, and we show that there exist split links with diagrams requiring an arbitrarily large number of such additional crossings. More precisely, we provide a family of diagrams of split links, so that any sequence of Reidemeister moves transforming a diagram with c crossings into a split diagram requires going through a diagram with Ω(√c) extra crossings. Our proof relies on the framework of bubble tangles, as introduced by the first two authors, and a technique of Chambers and Liokumovitch to turn homotopies into isotopies in the context of Riemannian geometry.
Cite as

Corentin Lunel, Arnaud de Mesmay, and Jonathan Spreer. Hard Diagrams of Split Links. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 67:1-67:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{lunel_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.67,
  author =	{Lunel, Corentin and de Mesmay, Arnaud and Spreer, Jonathan},
  title =	{{Hard Diagrams of Split Links}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{67:1--67:17},
  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.2025.67},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-232191},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.67},
  annote =	{Keywords: Knot theory, hard knot and link diagrams, Reidemeister moves, extra crossings, split links, bubble tangles, compression representativity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2024.37
Optimal Euclidean Tree Covers

Authors: Hsien-Chih Chang, Jonathan Conroy, Hung Le, Lazar Milenković, Shay Solomon, and Cuong Than

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 293, 40th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2024)

Abstract
A (1+e)-stretch tree cover of a metric space is a collection of trees, where every pair of points has a (1+e)-stretch path in one of the trees. The celebrated Dumbbell Theorem [Arya et al. STOC'95] states that any set of n points in d-dimensional Euclidean space admits a (1+e)-stretch tree cover with O_d(e^{-d} ⋅ log(1/e)) trees, where the O_d notation suppresses terms that depend solely on the dimension d. The running time of their construction is O_d(n log n ⋅ log(1/e)/e^d + n ⋅ e^{-2d}). Since the same point may occur in multiple levels of the tree, the maximum degree of a point in the tree cover may be as large as Ω(log Φ), where Φ is the aspect ratio of the input point set. In this work we present a (1+e)-stretch tree cover with O_d(e^{-d+1} ⋅ log(1/e)) trees, which is optimal (up to the log(1/e) factor). Moreover, the maximum degree of points in any tree is an absolute constant for any d. As a direct corollary, we obtain an optimal {routing scheme} in low-dimensional Euclidean spaces. We also present a (1+e)-stretch Steiner tree cover (that may use Steiner points) with O_d(e^{(-d+1)/2} ⋅ log(1/e)) trees, which too is optimal. The running time of our two constructions is linear in the number of edges in the respective tree covers, ignoring an additive O_d(n log n) term; this improves over the running time underlying the Dumbbell Theorem.
Cite as

Hsien-Chih Chang, Jonathan Conroy, Hung Le, Lazar Milenković, Shay Solomon, and Cuong Than. Optimal Euclidean Tree Covers. In 40th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 293, pp. 37:1-37:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{chang_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2024.37,
  author =	{Chang, Hsien-Chih and Conroy, Jonathan and Le, Hung and Milenkovi\'{c}, Lazar and Solomon, Shay and Than, Cuong},
  title =	{{Optimal Euclidean Tree Covers}},
  booktitle =	{40th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2024)},
  pages =	{37:1--37:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-316-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{293},
  editor =	{Mulzer, Wolfgang and Phillips, Jeff M.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2024.37},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-199828},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2024.37},
  annote =	{Keywords: Tree cover, spanner, Steiner point, routing, bounded-degree, quadtree, net-tree}
}
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