50 Search Results for "Demaine, Martin L."

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.2
Near-Real-Time Solutions for Online String Problems

Authors: Dominik Köppl and Gregory Kucherov

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 369, 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)

Abstract
Based on the Breslauer-Italiano online suffix tree construction algorithm (2013) with double logarithmic worst-case guarantees on the update time per letter, we develop near-real-time algorithms for several classical problems on strings, including the computation of the longest repeating suffix array, the (reversed) Lempel-Ziv 77 factorization, and the maintenance of minimal unique substrings, all in an online manner. Our solutions improve over the best known running times for these problems in terms of the worst-case time per letter, for which we achieve a poly-log-logarithmic time complexity, within a linear space. Best known results for these problems require a poly-logarithmic time complexity per letter or only provide amortized complexity bounds. As a result of independent interest, we give conversions between the longest previous factor array and the longest repeating suffix array in space and time bounds based on their irreducible representations, which can have sizes sublinear in the length of the input string.
Cite as

Dominik Köppl and Gregory Kucherov. Near-Real-Time Solutions for Online String Problems. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 2:1-2:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{koppl_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.2,
  author =	{K\"{o}ppl, Dominik and Kucherov, Gregory},
  title =	{{Near-Real-Time Solutions for Online String Problems}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-420-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{369},
  editor =	{Bille, Philip and Prezza, Nicola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259287},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: online algorithms, string algorithms, suffix tree, real-time computation, Lempel-Ziv factorization, minimal unique substrings}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.10
Packing Compact Subgraphs with Applications to Districting

Authors: Ho-Lin Chen, Po-Yu Chou, Prathamesh Dharangutte, Jie Gao, Shang-En Huang, and Fang-Yi Yu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 368, 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)

Abstract
Packing disjoint subgraphs in a given graph is a fundamental problem with many applications. Motivated by political districting, we focus on connected subgraphs that are compact (e.g., having constant radius from a single center vertex) and that satisfy additional composition requirements, such as a minimum population/weight threshold or balanced weight types (e.g., political affiliations). We aim to maximize coverage by disjoint districts that meet these requirements. In this work, we present new results that substantially improve the previously known bounds on balanced star districts for planar and minor-free graphs [Prathamesh Dharangutte et al., 2025]. In particular, we improve the approximation factor from O(log n) to O(1) for packing balanced star districts using the exact same algorithm, but with a refined analysis. We also extend the results beyond planar graphs to minor-free graphs and an even broader family of graphs of bounded expansion. Additionally, we obtain an O(1) approximation for packing radius-k districts (with a constant k) in planar and apex-minor-free graphs. In order to get a (1+ε) approximation on the max coverage, we show that this can be achieved if we allow a slight relaxation of the balancedness parameters (by a factor that can be made arbitrarily close to 1), for bounded radius-k districts on planar and apex-minor-free graphs. We show that all of these results can also be obtained if we enforce a minimum weight threshold for each district as the composition requirement, rather than balancedness. We present various results on hardness and hardness of approximation for this variant, by graph and district types.
Cite as

Ho-Lin Chen, Po-Yu Chou, Prathamesh Dharangutte, Jie Gao, Shang-En Huang, and Fang-Yi Yu. Packing Compact Subgraphs with Applications to Districting. In 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 368, pp. 10:1-10:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2026.10,
  author =	{Chen, Ho-Lin and Chou, Po-Yu and Dharangutte, Prathamesh and Gao, Jie and Huang, Shang-En and Yu, Fang-Yi},
  title =	{{Packing Compact Subgraphs with Applications to Districting}},
  booktitle =	{7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)},
  pages =	{10:1--10:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-419-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{368},
  editor =	{Lin, Huijia (Rachel)},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.10},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259820},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.10},
  annote =	{Keywords: Approximation algorithms, algorithmic fairness}
}
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.2026.36
Upward Book Embeddings of Partitioned Digraphs

Authors: Giordano Da Lozzo, Fabrizio Frati, and Ignaz Rutter

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

Abstract
In 1999, Heath, Pemmaraju, and Trenk [SIAM J. Comput. 28(4), 1999] extended the classic notion of book embeddings to digraphs, introducing the concept of upward book embeddings, in which the vertices must appear along the spine in a topological order and the edges are partitioned into pages, so that no two edges in the same page cross. For a partitioned digraph G = (V, ⋃^k_{i=1} E_i), that is, a digraph whose edge set is partitioned into k subsets, an upward book embedding is required to assign edges to pages as prescribed by the given partition. In a companion paper, Heath and Pemmaraju [SIAM J. Comput. 28(5), 1999] proved that the problem of testing the existence of an upward book embedding of a partitioned digraph is linear-time solvable for k = 1 and recently Akitaya, Demaine, Hesterberg, and Liu [GD, 2017] have shown the problem NP-complete for k ≥ 3. In this paper, we study upward book embeddings of partitioned digraphs and focus on the unsolved case k = 2. Our first main result is a novel characterization of the upward embeddings that support an upward book embedding in two pages. We exploit this characterization in several ways, and obtain a rich picture of the complexity landscape of the problem. First, we show that the problem remains NP-complete when k = 2, thus closing the complexity gap for the problem. Second, we show that, for an n-vertex partitioned digraph with a prescribed planar embedding, the existence of an upward book embedding that respects the given planar embedding can be tested in O(n log³ n) time. Finally, leveraging the SPQ(R)-tree decomposition of biconnected graphs into triconnected components, we present a cubic-time testing algorithm for biconnected directed partial 2-trees.
Cite as

Giordano Da Lozzo, Fabrizio Frati, and Ignaz Rutter. Upward Book Embeddings of Partitioned Digraphs. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 36:1-36:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{dalozzo_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.36,
  author =	{Da Lozzo, Giordano and Frati, Fabrizio and Rutter, Ignaz},
  title =	{{Upward Book Embeddings of Partitioned Digraphs}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{36:1--36:18},
  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.2026.36},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258424},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.36},
  annote =	{Keywords: upward book embeddings, partitioned digraphs, SPQ-trees, 2-trees}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.46
A Branch-And-Bound Algorithm for the Traveling Salesman Problem with Difficult Neighborhoods

Authors: Sándor P. Fekete, Rouven Kniep, Dominik Krupke, and Michael Perk

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

Abstract
The Traveling Salesman Problem with Neighborhoods (TSPN) generalizes the classical Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) by requiring a tour to visit a set of polygonal regions rather than fixed points, a natural goal that arises in various applications. While the geometric TSP allows arbitrarily close approximation and provably optimal solutions for benchmark instances of significant size, the TSPN is considerably more challenging, both in theory (due to APX-hardness) and practice, for which only benchmark instances up to 16 regions have been solved to optimality. Here we present a branch-and-bound algorithm that combines a spectrum of geometry-based filters (for reducing the number of considered sequences) with Second-Order Cone Programs (SOCP) (for computing optimal tours for a given permutation of neighborhoods). This allows us to solve larger polygonal TSPN instances than before to within an optimality tolerance of 0.1%; moreover, while previous work (both in theory and practice) relied on relatively benign neighborhoods, we can handle non-convex, non-simple neighborhoods of different sizes. In experiments on 490 benchmark instances with up to 50 polygons each, our method achieves a 99.6% optimality rate within 300s, with the remaining two instances solved within 595s. For 68 larger instances of size n = 60, our method still allows solving 86.8% of instances to optimality within 900s, leaving only 3 of the instances with optimality gaps above 3%, with the maximum being 5.53%.
Cite as

Sándor P. Fekete, Rouven Kniep, Dominik Krupke, and Michael Perk. A Branch-And-Bound Algorithm for the Traveling Salesman Problem with Difficult Neighborhoods. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 46:1-46:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{fekete_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.46,
  author =	{Fekete, S\'{a}ndor P. and Kniep, Rouven and Krupke, Dominik and Perk, Michael},
  title =	{{A Branch-And-Bound Algorithm for the Traveling Salesman Problem with Difficult Neighborhoods}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{46:1--46:20},
  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.2026.46},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258529},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.46},
  annote =	{Keywords: Geometric optimization, geometric covering, TSP with neighborhoods, exact algorithms, algorithm engineering}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.80
Hardness of High-Dimensional Linear Classification

Authors: Alexander Munteanu, Simon Omlor, and Jeff M. Phillips

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

Abstract
We establish new exponential in dimension lower bounds for the Maximum Halfspace Discrepancy problem, which models linear classification. Both are fundamental problems in computational geometry and machine learning in their exact and approximate forms. However, only O(n^d) and respectively Õ(1/ε^d) upper bounds are known and complemented by polynomial lower bounds that do not support the exponential in dimension dependence. We close this gap up to polylogarithmic terms by reduction from widely-believed hardness conjectures for Affine Degeneracy testing and k-Sum problems. Our reductions yield matching lower bounds of Ω̃(n^d) and respectively Ω̃(1/ε^d) based on Affine Degeneracy testing, and Ω̃(n^{d/2}) and respectively Ω̃(1/ε^{d/2}) conditioned on k-Sum. The first bound also holds unconditionally if the computational model is restricted to make sidedness queries, which corresponds to a widely spread setting implemented and optimized in many contemporary algorithms and computing paradigms.
Cite as

Alexander Munteanu, Simon Omlor, and Jeff M. Phillips. Hardness of High-Dimensional Linear Classification. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 80:1-80:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{munteanu_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.80,
  author =	{Munteanu, Alexander and Omlor, Simon and Phillips, Jeff M.},
  title =	{{Hardness of High-Dimensional Linear Classification}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{80:1--80:16},
  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.2026.80},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258871},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.80},
  annote =	{Keywords: Conditional Hardness, k-Sum, Affine Degeneracy, Halfspace Discrepancy, Classification}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.2
Man, These New York Times Games Are Hard! A Computational Perspective

Authors: Alessandro Giovanni Alberti, Flavio Chierichetti, Mirko Giacchini, Daniele Muscillo, Alessandro Panconesi, and Erasmo Tani

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 366, 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)

Abstract
The New York Times (NYT) games have found widespread popularity in recent years and reportedly account for an increasing fraction of the newspaper’s readership. In this paper, we bring the computational lens to the study of New York Times games and consider four of them not previously studied: Letter Boxed, Pips, Strands and Tiles. We show that these games can be just as hard as they are fun. In particular, we characterize the hardness of several variants of computational problems related to these popular puzzle games. For Letter Boxed, we show that deciding whether an instance is solvable is in general NP-Complete, while in some parameter settings it can be done in polynomial time. Similarly, for Pips we prove that deciding whether a puzzle has a solution is NP-Complete even in some restricted classes of instances. We then show that one natural computational problem arising from Strands is NP-Complete in most parameter settings. Finally, we demonstrate that deciding whether a Tiles puzzle is solvable with a single, uninterrupted combo requires polynomial time.
Cite as

Alessandro Giovanni Alberti, Flavio Chierichetti, Mirko Giacchini, Daniele Muscillo, Alessandro Panconesi, and Erasmo Tani. Man, These New York Times Games Are Hard! A Computational Perspective. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 2:1-2:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{alberti_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.2,
  author =	{Alberti, Alessandro Giovanni and Chierichetti, Flavio and Giacchini, Mirko and Muscillo, Daniele and Panconesi, Alessandro and Tani, Erasmo},
  title =	{{Man, These New York Times Games Are Hard! A Computational Perspective}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-417-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{366},
  editor =	{Iacono, John},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257219},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: NP-Hardness, Puzzles, Games, New York Times, Pips, Letter Boxed, Strands, Tiles}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.5
Token Positional Games

Authors: Guillaume Bagan, Quentin Deschamps, Florian Galliot, Mirjana Mikalački, and Nacim Oijid

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 366, 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)

Abstract
The classical Maker-Breaker positional game is played on a board which is a hypergraph ℋ, with two players, Maker and Breaker, alternately claiming vertices of ℋ until all the vertices are claimed. When the game ends, Maker wins if she has claimed all the vertices of some edge of ℋ; otherwise, Breaker wins. Playing this game in real life can be done by placing tokens on the vertices of the board. In this paper, we study the unfortunate case in which one or both players do not have enough tokens to cover all the vertices and, as such, will have to move their tokens around at some point instead of placing new ones. There may be a bias, in that Maker and Breaker do not necessarily have the same amount of tokens. The present paper initiates the study of this generalization of positional games, called token positional games. A particularly interesting case is when Maker has a winning strategy in the classical game: what is the lowest number of tokens with which she still wins against Breaker’s unlimited stock? We notably show that, for k-uniform hypergraphs on an arbitrarily large number n of vertices, this number equals k if k ∈ {2,3} but can vary from k to Ω(n) if k ≥ 4. From an algorithmic point of view, PSPACE-hardness in general is inherited from classical positional games, but we get a polynomial-time algorithm to solve the case where Breaker only has one token. We also establish EXPTIME-completeness for a "token sliding" variation of the game.
Cite as

Guillaume Bagan, Quentin Deschamps, Florian Galliot, Mirjana Mikalački, and Nacim Oijid. Token Positional Games. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 5:1-5:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bagan_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.5,
  author =	{Bagan, Guillaume and Deschamps, Quentin and Galliot, Florian and Mikala\v{c}ki, Mirjana and Oijid, Nacim},
  title =	{{Token Positional Games}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{5:1--5:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-417-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{366},
  editor =	{Iacono, John},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257240},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: positional games, token games, hypergraphs, algorithmic complexity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.11
An Almost-Optimal Upper Bound on the Push Number of the Torus Puzzle

Authors: Matteo Caporrella and Stefano Leucci

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 366, 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)

Abstract
We study the Torus Puzzle, a solitaire game in which the elements of an input m × n matrix need to be rearranged into a target configuration via a sequence of unit rotations (i.e., circular shifts) of rows and/or columns. Amano et al. proposed a more permissive variant of the above puzzle, where each row and column rotation can shift the involved elements by any amount of positions. The number of rotations needed to solve the original and the permissive variants of the puzzle are respectively known as the push number and the drag number, where the latter is always smaller than or equal to the former and admits an existential lower bound of Ω(mn). While this lower bound is matched by an O(mn) upper bound, the push number is not so well understood. Indeed, to the best of our knowledge, only an O(mn ⋅ max{m, n}) upper bound is currently known. In this paper, we provide an algorithm that solves the Torus Puzzle using O(mn ⋅ log max {m, n}) unit rotations in a model that is more restricted than that of the original puzzle. This implies a corresponding upper bound on the push number and reduces the gap between the known upper and lower bounds from Θ(max{m,n}) to Θ(log max{m, n}).
Cite as

Matteo Caporrella and Stefano Leucci. An Almost-Optimal Upper Bound on the Push Number of the Torus Puzzle. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 11:1-11:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{caporrella_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.11,
  author =	{Caporrella, Matteo and Leucci, Stefano},
  title =	{{An Almost-Optimal Upper Bound on the Push Number of the Torus Puzzle}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{11:1--11:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-417-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{366},
  editor =	{Iacono, John},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.11},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257307},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.11},
  annote =	{Keywords: Torus puzzle, Push number, Permutation puzzles}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.31
A Demigod’s Number for the Rubik’s Cube

Authors: Arturo Merino and Bernardo Subercaseaux

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 366, 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)

Abstract
It is by now well-known that any state of the 3× 3 × 3 Rubik’s Cube can be solved in at most 20 moves, a result often referred to as "God’s Number". However, this result took Rokicki et al. around 35 CPU years to prove and is therefore very challenging to reproduce. We provide a novel approach to obtain a worse bound of 36 moves with high confidence, but that offers two main advantages: (i) it is easy to understand, reproduce, and verify, and (ii) our main idea generalizes to bounding the diameter of other vertex-transitive graphs by at most twice its true value, hence the name "demigod number". Our approach is based on the fact that, for vertex-transitive graphs, the diameter at most twice the average distance (of which we give a much simpler proof than in the literature). Then, by sampling uniformly random states and using a modern solver to obtain upper bounds on their distance, a standard concentration bound allows us to confidently state that the average distance is around 18.32 ± 0.18, from where the diameter is at most 36.
Cite as

Arturo Merino and Bernardo Subercaseaux. A Demigod’s Number for the Rubik’s Cube. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 31:1-31:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{merino_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.31,
  author =	{Merino, Arturo and Subercaseaux, Bernardo},
  title =	{{A Demigod’s Number for the Rubik’s Cube}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{31:1--31:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-417-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{366},
  editor =	{Iacono, John},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.31},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257505},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.31},
  annote =	{Keywords: Diameter, Rubik’s Cube, Experimental mathematics}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.32
Tetris Is Hard with Just One Piece Type

Authors: MIT Hardness Group, Josh Brunner, Erik D. Demaine, Della Hendrickson, and Jeffery Li

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 366, 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)

Abstract
We analyze the computational complexity of Tetris clearing (determining whether the player can clear an initial board using a given sequence of pieces) and survival (determining whether the player can avoid losing before placing all the given pieces in an initial board) when restricted to a single polyomino piece type. We prove, for any tetromino piece type P except for O, the NP-hardness of Tetris clearing and survival under the standard Super Rotation System (SRS), even when the input sequence consists of only a specified number of P pieces. These surprising results disprove a 23-year-old conjecture on the computational complexity of Tetris with only I pieces (although our result is only for a specific rotation system). As a corollary, we prove the NP-hardness of Tetris clearing when the sequence of pieces has to be able to be generated from a 7k-bag randomizer for any positive integer k ≥ 1. On the positive side, we give polynomial-time algorithms for Tetris clearing and survival when the input sequence consists of only dominoes, assuming a particular rotation model, solving a version of a 9-year-old open problem. Along the way, we give polynomial-time algorithms for Tetris clearing and survival with 1 × k pieces (for any fixed k), provided the top k-1 rows are initially empty, showing that our I NP-hardness result needs to have filled cells in the top three rows.
Cite as

MIT Hardness Group, Josh Brunner, Erik D. Demaine, Della Hendrickson, and Jeffery Li. Tetris Is Hard with Just One Piece Type. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 32:1-32:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{mithardnessgroup_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.32,
  author =	{MIT Hardness Group and Brunner, Josh and Demaine, Erik D. and Hendrickson, Della and Li, Jeffery},
  title =	{{Tetris Is Hard with Just One Piece Type}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{32:1--32:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-417-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{366},
  editor =	{Iacono, John},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.32},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257515},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.32},
  annote =	{Keywords: complexity, hardness, video games, counting}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.40
An ASP-Completeness Framework for Dynasty Puzzles

Authors: Kosuke Susukita

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 366, 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)

Abstract
A certain class of pencil-and-paper puzzles shares common rules: given a grid, certain cells must be shaded such that i) no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent, and ii) all unshaded cells are orthogonally connected. Such puzzles are sometimes referred to as "dynasty puzzles" within parts of the online puzzle community. We introduce a framework for proving the ASP-completeness (i.e., NP-complete under parsimonious reductions) of various dynasty puzzles. We apply this framework to seven specific dynasty puzzles - Akichiwake, Aquapelago, Ayeheya, Guide Arrow, Heyawake, Hitori, and Kurodoko. As a consequence, for given k solutions of any of these puzzles, deciding whether a distinct solution exists is NP-complete, and counting the number of solutions is #P-complete. Our results strengthen the known result of ASP-completeness for Heyawake and establish the ASP-completeness of the other six puzzles. The main idea is to reconstruct the reduction from the Tree-Residue Vertex-Breaking Problem (TRVB) to the Hamiltonian Cycle Problem introduced by MIT Hardness Group (2024). In our framework, the connectivity of the unshaded cells ensures the connectivity of the shaded cells, allowing the shaded cells to simulate TRVB, which is also an alternative representation of the Hamiltonian cycles under certain conditions.
Cite as

Kosuke Susukita. An ASP-Completeness Framework for Dynasty Puzzles. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 40:1-40:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{susukita:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.40,
  author =	{Susukita, Kosuke},
  title =	{{An ASP-Completeness Framework for Dynasty Puzzles}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{40:1--40:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-417-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{366},
  editor =	{Iacono, John},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.40},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257596},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.40},
  annote =	{Keywords: ASP-completeness, pencil-and-paper puzzles, dynasty puzzles, Hitori, Kurodoko, Hamiltonian cycle, Tree-Residue Vertex-Breaking}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.49
2D Minimal Graph Rigidity is in NC for One-Crossing-Minor-Free Graphs

Authors: Rohit Gurjar, Kilian Rothmund, and Thomas Thierauf

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 364, 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)

Abstract
Minimally rigid graphs can be decided and embedded in the plane efficiently, i.e. in polynomial time. There is also an efficient randomized parallel algorithm, i.e. in RNC. We present an NC-algorithm to decide whether one-crossing-minor-free graphs are minimally rigid. In the special case of K_{3,3}-free graphs, we also compute an infinitesimally rigid embedding in NC.
Cite as

Rohit Gurjar, Kilian Rothmund, and Thomas Thierauf. 2D Minimal Graph Rigidity is in NC for One-Crossing-Minor-Free Graphs. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 49:1-49:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{gurjar_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.49,
  author =	{Gurjar, Rohit and Rothmund, Kilian and Thierauf, Thomas},
  title =	{{2D Minimal Graph Rigidity is in NC for One-Crossing-Minor-Free Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{49:1--49:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-412-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{364},
  editor =	{Mahajan, Meena and Manea, Florin and McIver, Annabelle and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.49},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255385},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.49},
  annote =	{Keywords: Graph Rigidity, Parallel Algorithms, Polynomial Identity Testing, Derandomization}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.47
Dudeney’s Dissection Is Optimal

Authors: Erik D. Demaine, Tonan Kamata, and Ryuhei Uehara

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

Abstract
In 1907, Henry Ernest Dudeney posed a puzzle: "cut any equilateral triangle ... into as few pieces as possible that will fit together and form a perfect square" (without overlap, via translation and rotation). Four weeks later, Dudeney demonstrated a beautiful four-piece solution, which today remains perhaps the most famous example of dissection. In this paper (over a century later), we finally solve Dudeney’s puzzle, by proving that the equilateral triangle and square have no common dissection with three or fewer polygonal pieces. We reduce the problem to the analysis of discrete graph structures representing the correspondence between the edges and the vertices of the pieces forming each polygon.
Cite as

Erik D. Demaine, Tonan Kamata, and Ryuhei Uehara. Dudeney’s Dissection Is Optimal. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 47:1-47:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{demaine_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.47,
  author =	{Demaine, Erik D. and Kamata, Tonan and Uehara, Ryuhei},
  title =	{{Dudeney’s Dissection Is Optimal}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{47:1--47:22},
  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.2026.47},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253345},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.47},
  annote =	{Keywords: Geometric Dissection, Dudeney Dissection, Dissection with Fewest Pieces}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.30
A Graph Width Perspective on Partially Ordered Hamiltonian Paths and Cycles II: Vertex and Edge Deletion Numbers

Authors: Jesse Beisegel, Katharina Klost, Kristin Knorr, Fabienne Ratajczak, and Robert Scheffler

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 358, 20th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2025)

Abstract
We consider the problem of finding a Hamiltonian path or cycle with precedence constraints in the form of a partial order on the vertex set. We study the complexity for graph width parameters for which the ordinary problems Hamiltonian Path and Hamiltonian Cycle are in FPT. In particular, we focus on parameters that describe how many vertices and edges have to be deleted to become a member of a certain graph class. We show that the problems are W[1]-hard for such restricted cases as vertex distance to path and vertex distance to clique. We complement these results by showing that the problems can be solved in XP time for vertex distance to outerplanar and vertex distance to block. Furthermore, we present some FPT algorithms, e.g., for edge distance to block. Additionally, we prove para-NP-hardness when considered with the edge clique cover number.
Cite as

Jesse Beisegel, Katharina Klost, Kristin Knorr, Fabienne Ratajczak, and Robert Scheffler. A Graph Width Perspective on Partially Ordered Hamiltonian Paths and Cycles II: Vertex and Edge Deletion Numbers. In 20th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 358, pp. 30:1-30:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{beisegel_et_al:LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.30,
  author =	{Beisegel, Jesse and Klost, Katharina and Knorr, Kristin and Ratajczak, Fabienne and Scheffler, Robert},
  title =	{{A Graph Width Perspective on Partially Ordered Hamiltonian Paths and Cycles II: Vertex and Edge Deletion Numbers}},
  booktitle =	{20th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2025)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-407-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{358},
  editor =	{Agrawal, Akanksha and van Leeuwen, Erik Jan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-251623},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: Hamiltonian path, Hamiltonian cycle, partial order, graph width parameter, parameterized complexity}
}
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