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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.16

Online Hitting Set for Axis-Aligned Squares

Authors: Minati De, Satyam Singh, and Csaba D. Tóth

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 370, 20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026)

Abstract

Given a set P of n points in the plane and a sequence of axis-aligned squares that arrive in an online fashion, the online hitting set problem consists of maintaining, by adding new points from P if necessary, a hitting set H ⊆ P, which contains at least one point in every input square that has already arrived. We present an O(log n)-competitive deterministic algorithm for this problem. The competitive ratio is the best possible, apart from constant factors. In fact, this is the first O(log n)-competitive algorithm for the online hitting set problem that works for geometric objects of arbitrary sizes (i.e., unbounded scaling factors) in the plane. We further generalize this result to positive homothets of a polygon with k ≥ 3 vertices in the plane and provide an O(k²log n)-competitive algorithm.

Cite as

Minati De, Satyam Singh, and Csaba D. Tóth. Online Hitting Set for Axis-Aligned Squares. In 20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 370, pp. 16:1-16:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{de_et_al:LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.16,
  author =	{De, Minati and Singh, Satyam and T\'{o}th, Csaba D.},
  title =	{{Online Hitting Set for Axis-Aligned Squares}},
  booktitle =	{20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-421-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{370},
  editor =	{Fraigniaud, Pierre},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-260528},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: axis-aligned squares, hitting set, homothets of a polygon, online algorithm}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.14

Improved Online Hitting Set Algorithms for Structured and Geometric Set Systems

Authors: Sujoy Bhore, Anupam Gupta, and Amit Kumar

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

Abstract

In the online hitting set problem, sets arrive over time, and the algorithm has to maintain a subset of elements that hit all the sets seen so far. Alon, Awerbuch, Azar, Buchbinder, and Naor (SICOMP 2009) gave an algorithm with competitive ratio O(log n log m) for the (general) online hitting set and set cover problems for m sets and n elements; this is known to be tight for efficient online algorithms. Given this barrier for general set systems, we ask: can we break this double-logarithmic phenomenon for online hitting set/set cover on structured and geometric set systems? We provide an O(log n log log n)-competitive algorithm for the weighted online hitting set problem on set systems with linear shallow-cell complexity, replacing the double-logarithmic factor in the general result by effectively a single logarithmic term. As a consequence of our results we obtain the first bounds for weighted online hitting set for natural geometric set families, thereby answering open questions regarding the gap between general and geometric weighted online hitting set problems.

Cite as

Sujoy Bhore, Anupam Gupta, and Amit Kumar. Improved Online Hitting Set Algorithms for Structured and Geometric Set Systems. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 14:1-14:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bhore_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.14,
  author =	{Bhore, Sujoy and Gupta, Anupam and Kumar, Amit},
  title =	{{Improved Online Hitting Set Algorithms for Structured and Geometric Set Systems}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:14},
  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.2026.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258206},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Hitting Set, Online Algorithms, Shallow-Cell Complexity, VC-Dimension}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.81

Optimal-Cost Construction of Shallow Cuttings for 3-D Dominance Ranges in the I/O-Model

Authors: Yakov Nekrich and Saladi Rahul

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

Abstract

Shallow cuttings are a fundamental tool in computational geometry and spatial databases for solving offline and online range searching problems. For a set P of N points in 3-D, at SODA'14, Afshani and Tsakalidis designed an optimal O(N log₂N) time algorithm that constructs shallow cuttings for 3-D dominance ranges in internal memory. Even though shallow cuttings are used in the I/O-model to design space and query efficient range searching data structures, an efficient construction of them is not known till now. In this paper, we design an optimal-cost algorithm to construct shallow cuttings for 3-D dominance ranges. The number of I/Os performed by the algorithm is O (N/B log_{M/B}(N/B)), where B is the block size and M is the memory size. As two applications of the optimal-cost construction algorithm, we design fast algorithms for offline 3-D dominance reporting and offline 3-D approximate dominance counting. We believe that our algorithm will find further applications in offline 3-D range searching problems and in improving construction cost of data structures for 3-D range searching problems.

Cite as

Yakov Nekrich and Saladi Rahul. Optimal-Cost Construction of Shallow Cuttings for 3-D Dominance Ranges in the I/O-Model. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 81:1-81:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{nekrich_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.81,
  author =	{Nekrich, Yakov and Rahul, Saladi},
  title =	{{Optimal-Cost Construction of Shallow Cuttings for 3-D Dominance Ranges in the I/O-Model}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{81:1--81:15},
  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.2026.81},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258884},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.81},
  annote =	{Keywords: Data Structures, I/O-efficient algorithms, Orthogonal Range Searching}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.9

Acyclic Join Sampling Under Selections: Dichotomy, Union Sampling, and Enumeration

Authors: Jinchao Huang, Yufei Tao, and Sibo Wang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 365, 29th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2026)

Abstract

Previous research on join sampling has focused on joins without selection conditions, even though such conditions are prevalent in everyday queries in database systems. Motivated by this, we undertake a systematic investigation on the complexity of sampling from the result of an acyclic join under equality conditions given only at runtime. When conditions are conjunctive, the goal is to understand when it is possible to precompute a feasible structure that uses Õ(IN) space and supports sampling in Õ(1) time, where IN is the input size. We present a dichotomy to characterize (subject to a widely-accepted conjecture) the existence of such structures based on the conditions supplied and, in every feasible scenario, give an optimal structure of O(IN) space and O(1) sample time. We then extend our investigation to conditions expressed in disjunctive normal form, where the core challenge reduces to the fundamental set union sampling problem. We overcome the challenge with an optimal algorithm and utilize it to develop optimal sampling structures. Our findings also lead to new results on the closely-related random enumeration problem.

Cite as

Jinchao Huang, Yufei Tao, and Sibo Wang. Acyclic Join Sampling Under Selections: Dichotomy, Union Sampling, and Enumeration. In 29th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 365, pp. 9:1-9:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{huang_et_al:LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.9,
  author =	{Huang, Jinchao and Tao, Yufei and Wang, Sibo},
  title =	{{Acyclic Join Sampling Under Selections: Dichotomy, Union Sampling, and Enumeration}},
  booktitle =	{29th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2026)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-413-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{365},
  editor =	{ten Cate, Balder and Funk, Maurice},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-256231},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Conjunctive Queries, Acyclic Joins, Sampling, Lower Bounds}
}

Document

Database Theory in Action

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.27

Database Theory in Action: Direct Access to Query Answers

Authors: Jiayin Hu and Nikolaos Tziavelis

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 365, 29th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2026)

Abstract

Direct access asks for the retrieval of query answers by their ranked position, given a query and a desired order. While the time complexity of data structures supporting such accesses has been studied in depth, and efficient algorithms for many queries and common orders are known, their practical performance has received little attention. We provide an implementation covering a wide range of queries and orders; it allows us to investigate intriguing practical aspects, including the comparative performance of database systems and the relationship between direct access and its single-access counterpart.

Cite as

Jiayin Hu and Nikolaos Tziavelis. Database Theory in Action: Direct Access to Query Answers. In 29th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 365, pp. 27:1-27:5, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{hu_et_al:LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.27,
  author =	{Hu, Jiayin and Tziavelis, Nikolaos},
  title =	{{Database Theory in Action: Direct Access to Query Answers}},
  booktitle =	{29th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2026)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:5},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-413-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{365},
  editor =	{ten Cate, Balder and Funk, Maurice},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-256411},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: direct access, conjunctive queries, joins, ranking}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.87

Range Longest Increasing Subsequence and Its Relatives

Authors: Karthik C. S. and Saladi Rahul

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

Abstract

Longest increasing subsequence (LIS) is a classical textbook problem which is still actively studied in various computational models. In this work, we present a few results for the range longest increasing subsequence problem (Range-LIS) and its variants. The input to Range-LIS is a sequence 𝒮 of n real numbers and a collection 𝒬 of m query ranges and for each query in 𝒬, the goal is to report the LIS of the sequence 𝒮 restricted to that query. Our two main results are for the following generalizations of the Range-LIS problem: 2D Range Queries: In this variant of the Range-LIS problem, each query is a pair of ranges, one of indices and the other of values, and we provide a randomized algorithm with running time Õ(mn^{1/2}+ n^{3/2})+O(k), where k is the cumulative length of the m output subsequences. This improves on the elementary Õ(mn) runtime algorithm when m = Ω(√n). Previously, the only known result breaking the quadratic barrier was of Tiskin [SODA'10] which could only handle 1D range queries (i.e., each query was a range of indices) and also just outputted the length of the LIS (instead of reporting the subsequence achieving that length). Subsequent to our paper, Gawrychowski, Gorbachev, and Kociumaka in a preprint have extended Tiskin’s approach to handle reporting 1D range queries in O(n(log n)³+m+k) time. Colored Sequences: In this variant of the Range-LIS problem, each element in 𝒮 is colored and for each query in 𝒬, the goal is to report a monochromatic LIS contained in the sequence 𝒮 restricted to that query. For 2D queries, we provide a randomized algorithm for this colored version with running time Õ(mn^{2/3}+ n^{5/3})+O(k). Moreover, for 1D queries, we provide an improved algorithm with running time Õ(mn^{1/2}+ n^{3/2})+O(k). Thus, we again improve on the elementary Õ(mn) runtime algorithm. Additionally, we prove that assuming the well-known Combinatorial Boolean Matrix Multiplication Hypothesis, that the runtime for 1D queries is essentially tight for combinatorial algorithms. Our algorithms combine several tools such as dynamic programming (to precompute increasing subsequences with some desirable properties), geometric data structures (to efficiently compute the dynamic programming entries), random sampling (to capture elements which are part of the LIS), classification of query ranges into large LIS and small LIS, and classification of colors into light and heavy. We believe that our techniques will be of interest to tackle other variants of LIS problem and other range-searching problems.

Cite as

Karthik C. S. and Saladi Rahul. Range Longest Increasing Subsequence and Its Relatives. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 87:1-87:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{karthikc.s._et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.87,
  author =	{Karthik C. S. and Rahul, Saladi},
  title =	{{Range Longest Increasing Subsequence and Its Relatives}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{87:1--87:20},
  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.2026.87},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253740},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.87},
  annote =	{Keywords: Longest Increasing Subsequence, Range Query, Fine-Grained Complexity}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.50

Online Hitting Sets for Disks of Bounded Radii

Authors: Minati De, Satyam Singh, and Csaba D. Tóth

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

Abstract

We present algorithms for the online minimum hitting set problem in geometric range spaces: Given a set P of n points in the plane and a sequence of geometric objects that arrive one-by-one, we need to maintain a hitting set at all times. For disks of radii in the interval [1,M], we present an O(log M log n)-competitive algorithm. This result generalizes from disks to positive homothets of any convex body in the plane with scaling factors in the interval [1,M]. As a main technical tool, we reduce the problem to the online hitting set problem for a finite subset of integer points and bottomless rectangles. Specifically, for a given N > 1, we present an O(log N)-competitive algorithm for the variant where P is a subset of an N× N section of the integer lattice, and the geometric objects are bottomless rectangles.

Cite as

Minati De, Satyam Singh, and Csaba D. Tóth. Online Hitting Sets for Disks of Bounded Radii. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 50:1-50:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{de_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.50,
  author =	{De, Minati and Singh, Satyam and T\'{o}th, Csaba D.},
  title =	{{Online Hitting Sets for Disks of Bounded Radii}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{50:1--50:16},
  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.2025.50},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245181},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.50},
  annote =	{Keywords: Geometric Hitting Set, Online Algorithm, Homothets, Disks}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.74

Core-Sparse Monge Matrix Multiplication: Improved Algorithm and Applications

Authors: Paweł Gawrychowski, Egor Gorbachev, and Tomasz Kociumaka

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

Abstract

Min-plus matrix multiplication is a fundamental tool for designing algorithms operating on distances in graphs and different problems solvable by dynamic programming. We know that, assuming the APSP hypothesis, no subcubic-time algorithm exists for the case of general matrices. However, in many applications the matrices admit certain structural properties that can be used to design faster algorithms. For example, when considering a planar graph, one often works with a Monge matrix A, meaning that the density matrix A^◻ has non-negative entries, that is, A^◻_{i,j} := A_{i+1,j} + A_{i,j+1} - A_{i,j} -A_{i+1,j+1} ≥ 0. The min-plus product of two n×n Monge matrices can be computed in 𝒪(n²) time using the famous SMAWK algorithm. In applications such as longest common subsequence, edit distance, and longest increasing subsequence, the matrices are even more structured, as observed by Tiskin [J. Discrete Algorithms, 2008]: they are (or can be converted to) simple unit-Monge matrices, meaning that the density matrix is a permutation matrix and, furthermore, the first column and the last row of the matrix consist of only zeroes. Such matrices admit an implicit representation of size 𝒪(n) and, as shown by Tiskin [SODA 2010 & Algorithmica, 2015], their min-plus product can be computed in 𝒪(nlog n) time. Russo [SPIRE 2010 & Theor. Comput. Sci., 2012] identified a general structural property of matrices that admit such efficient representation and min-plus multiplication algorithms: the core size δ, defined as the number of non-zero entries in the density matrices of the input and output matrices. He provided an adaptive implementation of the SMAWK algorithm that runs in 𝒪((n+δ)log³ n) or 𝒪((n+δ)log² n) time (depending on the representation of the input matrices). In this work, we further investigate the core size as the parameter that enables efficient min-plus matrix multiplication. On the combinatorial side, we provide a (linear) bound on the core size of the product matrix in terms of the core sizes of the input matrices. On the algorithmic side, we generalize Tiskin’s algorithm (but, arguably, with a more elementary analysis) to solve the core-sparse Monge matrix multiplication problem in 𝒪(n+δlog δ) ⊆ 𝒪(n + δ log n) time, matching the complexity for simple unit-Monge matrices. As witnessed by the recent work of Gorbachev and Kociumaka [STOC'25] for edit distance with integer weights, our generalization opens up the possibility of speed-ups for weighted sequence alignment problems. Furthermore, our multiplication algorithm is also capable of producing an efficient data structure for recovering the witness for any given entry of the output matrix. This allows us, for example, to preprocess an integer array of size n in Õ(n) time so that the longest increasing subsequence of any sub-array can be reconstructed in Õ(𝓁) time, where 𝓁 is the length of the reported subsequence. In comparison, Karthik C. S. and Rahul [arXiv, 2024] recently achieved 𝒪(𝓁+n^{1/2}polylog n)-time reporting after 𝒪(n^{3/2}polylog n)-time preprocessing.

Cite as

Paweł Gawrychowski, Egor Gorbachev, and Tomasz Kociumaka. Core-Sparse Monge Matrix Multiplication: Improved Algorithm and Applications. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 74:1-74:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{gawrychowski_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.74,
  author =	{Gawrychowski, Pawe{\l} and Gorbachev, Egor and Kociumaka, Tomasz},
  title =	{{Core-Sparse Monge Matrix Multiplication: Improved Algorithm and Applications}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{74:1--74:17},
  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.2025.74},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245427},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.74},
  annote =	{Keywords: Min-plus matrix multiplication, Monge matrix, longest increasing subsequence}
}

Document

APPROX

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.27

Triangles Improve 0.878 Approximation for Maxcut

Authors: Fredie George, Anand Louis, and Rameesh Paul

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract

Maxcut is a fundamental problem in graph algorithms, extensively studied for its theoretical and practical significance. The goal is to partition the vertex set of a graph G = (V, E) into disjoint subsets S and V⧵S so as to maximize the number of edges crossing the cut (S,V⧵S). The seminal work of Goemans and Williamson [Goemans and Williamson, 1995] introduced a semidefinite programming (SDP) based algorithm achieving a α_{GW} ≈ 0.87856-approximation for general graphs, guaranteed to be optimal under the Unique Games Conjecture [Khot, 2002; Khot et al., 2007]. We revisit the Goemans–Williamson SDP and prove that the standard Maxcut SDP achieves a (α_{GW} + Ω(1))-approximation whenever the input graph contains Ω(|E|) edge-disjoint triangles. Our analysis builds on classical rounding techniques studied in [Goemans and Williamson, 1995; Zwick, 1999] and introduces a refined understanding of the SDP solution structure in regimes where the previous guarantees are tight. Our result identifies a simple combinatorial property that may be satisfied by many natural graph classes. As applications, we show that unit ball graphs and graphs satisfying a spectral transitivity condition (as studied in [Gupta et al., 2016; Basu et al., 2024]) meet our structural criterion, and therefore we get better than α_{GW} approximation guarantees for them. Our algorithm runs in nearly linear time 𝒪̃(|E|), offering a more practical alternative to the PTAS of [Jansen et al., 2005] for unit ball graphs, which has exponential dependence on the approximation parameter.

Cite as

Fredie George, Anand Louis, and Rameesh Paul. Triangles Improve 0.878 Approximation for Maxcut. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 27:1-27:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{george_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.27,
  author =	{George, Fredie and Louis, Anand and Paul, Rameesh},
  title =	{{Triangles Improve 0.878 Approximation for Maxcut}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243931},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: Approximation Algorithms, Maxcut, Semidefinite Programming, Edge-disjoint Triangles, Unit Ball Graphs, Spectral Triadic Graphs}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.8

Tight Bounds on the Number of Closest Pairs in Vertical Slabs

Authors: Ahmad Biniaz, Prosenjit Bose, Chaeyoon Chung, Jean-Lou De Carufel, John Iacono, Anil Maheshwari, Saeed Odak, Michiel Smid, and Csaba D. Tóth

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

Abstract

Let S be a set of n points in ℝ^d, where d ≥ 2 is a constant, and let H₁,H₂,…,H_{m+1} be a sequence of vertical hyperplanes that are sorted by their first coordinates, such that exactly n/m points of S are between any two successive hyperplanes. Let |A(S,m)| be the number of different closest pairs in the {(m+1) choose 2} vertical slabs that are bounded by H_i and H_j, over all 1 ≤ i < j ≤ m+1. We prove tight bounds for the largest possible value of |A(S,m)|, over all point sets of size n, and for all values of 1 ≤ m ≤ n. As a result of these bounds, we obtain, for any constant ε > 0, a data structure of size O(n), such that for any vertical query slab Q, the closest pair in the set Q ∩ S can be reported in O(n^{1/2+ε}) time. Prior to this work, no linear space data structure with sublinear query time was known.

Cite as

Ahmad Biniaz, Prosenjit Bose, Chaeyoon Chung, Jean-Lou De Carufel, John Iacono, Anil Maheshwari, Saeed Odak, Michiel Smid, and Csaba D. Tóth. Tight Bounds on the Number of Closest Pairs in Vertical Slabs. In 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 349, pp. 8:1-8:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{biniaz_et_al:LIPIcs.WADS.2025.8,
  author =	{Biniaz, Ahmad and Bose, Prosenjit and Chung, Chaeyoon and De Carufel, Jean-Lou and Iacono, John and Maheshwari, Anil and Odak, Saeed and Smid, Michiel and T\'{o}th, Csaba D.},
  title =	{{Tight Bounds on the Number of Closest Pairs in Vertical Slabs}},
  booktitle =	{19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:14},
  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.2025.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-242391},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: closest pair, vertical slab, data structure}
}

Document

Research

DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.Grossi.16

Faster Range LCP Queries in Linear Space

Authors: Yakov Nekirch and Sharma V. Thankachan

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 132, From Strings to Graphs, and Back Again: A Festschrift for Roberto Grossi's 60th Birthday (2025)

Abstract

A range LCP query rlcp(α,β) on a text T[1 .. n] asks to return the length of the longest common prefix of any two suffixes of T with starting positions in a range [α,β]. In this paper we describe a data structure that uses O(n) space and supports range LCP queries in time O(log^ε n) for any constant ε > 0. Our result is the fastest currently known linear-space solution for this problem.

Cite as

Yakov Nekirch and Sharma V. Thankachan. Faster Range LCP Queries in Linear Space. In From Strings to Graphs, and Back Again: A Festschrift for Roberto Grossi's 60th Birthday. Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 132, pp. 16:1-16:6, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{nekirch_et_al:OASIcs.Grossi.16,
  author =	{Nekirch, Yakov and Thankachan, Sharma V.},
  title =	{{Faster Range LCP Queries in Linear Space}},
  booktitle =	{From Strings to Graphs, and Back Again: A Festschrift for Roberto Grossi's 60th Birthday},
  pages =	{16:1--16:6},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-391-1},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{132},
  editor =	{Conte, Alessio and Marino, Andrea and Rosone, Giovanna and Vitter, Jeffrey Scott},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.Grossi.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-238158},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.Grossi.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: Data Structures, String Algorithms, Longest Common Prefix}
}

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.2025.3

Convexity Helps Iterated Search in 3D

Authors: Peyman Afshani, Yakov Nekrich, and Frank Staals

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

Abstract

Inspired by the classical fractional cascading technique [Bernard Chazelle and Leonidas J. Guibas, 1986; Bernard Chazelle and Leonidas J. Guibas, 1986], we introduce new techniques to speed up the following type of iterated search in 3D: The input is a graph 𝐆 with bounded degree together with a set H_v of 3D hyperplanes associated with every vertex of v of 𝐆. The goal is to store the input such that given a query point q ∈ ℝ³ and a connected subgraph 𝐇 ⊂ 𝐆, we can decide if q is below or above the lower envelope of H_v for every v ∈ 𝐇. We show that using linear space, it is possible to answer queries in roughly O(log n + |𝐇|√{log n}) time which improves trivial bound of O(|𝐇|log n) obtained by using planar point location data structures. Our data structure can in fact answer more general queries (it combines with shallow cuttings) and it even works when 𝐇 is given one vertex at a time. We show that this has a number of new applications and in particular, we give improved solutions to a set of natural data structure problems that up to our knowledge had not seen any improvements. We believe this is a very surprising result because obtaining similar results for the planar point location problem was known to be impossible [Chazelle and Liu, 2004].

Cite as

Peyman Afshani, Yakov Nekrich, and Frank Staals. Convexity Helps Iterated Search in 3D. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 3:1-3:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{afshani_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.3,
  author =	{Afshani, Peyman and Nekrich, Yakov and Staals, Frank},
  title =	{{Convexity Helps Iterated Search in 3D}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:14},
  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.2025.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231558},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Data structures, range searching}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2025.24

Sorted Consecutive Occurrence Queries in Substrings

Authors: Waseem Akram and Takuya Mieno

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 331, 36th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2025)

Abstract

The string indexing problem is a fundamental computational problem with numerous applications, including information retrieval and bioinformatics. It aims to efficiently solve the pattern matching problem: given a text T of length n for preprocessing and a pattern P of length m as a query, the goal is to report all occurrences of P as substrings of T. Navarro and Thankachan [CPM 2015, Theor. Comput. Sci. 2016] introduced a variant of this problem called the gap-bounded consecutive occurrence query, which reports pairs of consecutive occurrences of P in T such that their gaps (i.e., the distances between them) lie within a query-specified range [g₁, g₂]. Recently, Bille et al. [FSTTCS 2020, Theor. Comput. Sci. 2022] proposed the top-k close consecutive occurrence query, which reports the k closest consecutive occurrences of P in T, sorted in non-decreasing order of distance. Both problems are optimally solved in query time with O(n log n)-space data structures. In this paper, we generalize these problems to the range query model, which focuses only on occurrences of P in a specified substring T[a.. b] of T. Our contributions are as follows: - We propose an O(n log² n)-space data structure that answers the range top-k consecutive occurrence query in O(|P| + log log n + k) time. - We propose an O(n log^{2+ε} n)-space data structure that answers the range gap-bounded consecutive occurrence query in O(|P| + log log n + output) time, where ε is a positive constant and output denotes the number of outputs. Additionally, as by-products, we present algorithms for geometric problems involving weighted horizontal segments in a 2D plane, which are of independent interest.

Cite as

Waseem Akram and Takuya Mieno. Sorted Consecutive Occurrence Queries in Substrings. In 36th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 331, pp. 24:1-24:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{akram_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2025.24,
  author =	{Akram, Waseem and Mieno, Takuya},
  title =	{{Sorted Consecutive Occurrence Queries in Substrings}},
  booktitle =	{36th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2025)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-369-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{331},
  editor =	{Bonizzoni, Paola and M\"{a}kinen, Veli},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2025.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231187},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2025.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: string algorithm, consecutive occurrences, suffix tree}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2025.43

Approximating Densest Subgraph in Geometric Intersection Graphs

Authors: Sariel Har-Peled and Saladi Rahul

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 327, 42nd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2025)

Abstract

For an undirected graph 𝖦 = (𝖵, 𝖤), with n vertices and m edges, the densest subgraph problem, is to compute a subset S ⊆ 𝖵 which maximizes the ratio |𝖤_S|/|S|, where 𝖤_S ⊆ 𝖤 is the set of all edges of 𝖦 with endpoints in S. The densest subgraph problem is a well studied problem in computer science. Existing exact and approximation algorithms for computing the densest subgraph require Ω(m) time. We present near-linear time (in n) approximation algorithms for the densest subgraph problem on implicit geometric intersection graphs, where the vertices are explicitly given but not the edges. As a concrete example, we consider n disks in the plane with arbitrary radii and present two different approximation algorithms. As a by-product, we show a reduction from (shallow) range-reporting to approximate counting/sampling which seems to be new and is useful for other problems such as independent query sampling.

Cite as

Sariel Har-Peled and Saladi Rahul. Approximating Densest Subgraph in Geometric Intersection Graphs. In 42nd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 327, pp. 43:1-43:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{harpeled_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2025.43,
  author =	{Har-Peled, Sariel and Rahul, Saladi},
  title =	{{Approximating Densest Subgraph in Geometric Intersection Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2025)},
  pages =	{43:1--43:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-365-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{327},
  editor =	{Beyersdorff, Olaf and Pilipczuk, Micha{\l} and Pimentel, Elaine 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.2025.43},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-228697},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2025.43},
  annote =	{Keywords: Geometric intersection graphs, Densest subgraph, Range searching, Approximation algorithms}
}

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