67 Search Results for "Stein, Clifford"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SEA.2026.26
Engineering Algorithms for Dynamic Greedy Set Cover

Authors: Amitai Uzrad

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 371, 24th International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2026)

Abstract
In the dynamic set cover problem, the input is a dynamic universe of elements and a fixed collection of sets. As elements are inserted or deleted, the goal is to efficiently maintain an approximate minimum set cover. While the past decade has seen significant theoretical breakthroughs for this problem, a notable gap remains between theoretical design and practical performance, as no comprehensive experimental study currently exists to validate these results. In this paper, we bridge this gap by implementing and evaluating four greedy-based dynamic algorithms across a diverse range of real-world instances. We derive our implementations from state-of-the-art frameworks - such as [GKKP(STOC'17); SU(STOC'23); SUZ(FOCS'24)] - which we simplify by identifying and modifying intricate subroutines that optimize asymptotic bounds but hinder practical performance. We evaluate these algorithms based on solution quality (set cover size) and efficiency, which comprises update time - the time required to update the solution following each insertion/deletion - and recourse - the number of changes made to the solution per update. Each algorithm uses a parameter β to balance quality against efficiency; we investigate the influence of this tradeoff parameter on each algorithm and then perform a comparative analysis to evaluate the algorithms against each other. Our results provide the first practical insights into which algorithmic strategies provide the most value in realistic scenarios.
Cite as

Amitai Uzrad. Engineering Algorithms for Dynamic Greedy Set Cover. In 24th International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 371, pp. 26:1-26:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{uzrad:LIPIcs.SEA.2026.26,
  author =	{Uzrad, Amitai},
  title =	{{Engineering Algorithms for Dynamic Greedy Set Cover}},
  booktitle =	{24th International Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2026)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-422-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{371},
  editor =	{Aum\"{u}ller, Martin and Finocchi, Irene},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SEA.2026.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-260308},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SEA.2026.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Dynamic graphs, set cover, recourse}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.5
Efficient Grammar Compression via RLZ-Based RePair

Authors: Rahul Varki, Travis Gagie, and Christina Boucher

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

Abstract
Among grammar-based compression techniques, RePair is a notable offline encoding scheme known for its simplicity and powerful combinatorial properties, producing compact grammars by repeatedly replacing the most frequent adjacent pairs of symbols, known as bigrams. However, RePair’s memory usage scales poorly with input size, as it loads the entire text into memory. In contrast, Relative Lempel-Ziv (RLZ) parsing offers a scalable and lightweight online encoding scheme that losslessly represents a text in terms of phrases that refer to a reference string, but it often fails to expose deeper structural patterns. We introduce an algorithm that produces a RePair grammar from the RLZ parse of the input, leveraging the strengths of both methods. Our method, RLZ-RePair, performs bigram replacements systematically, preserving the integrity of the RLZ phrases throughout the RePair iterations. When the reference is well chosen, our method achieves the same grammar as standard RePair while significantly reducing both memory usage and the number of bigram replacements. In particular, we show that RLZ-RePair can reduce memory usage by more than 80% while incurring only a modest runtime increase compared to RePair. To our knowledge, RLZ-RePair is one of the first scalable methods that constructs exact RePair grammars, resulting in a grammar-based compressor that is both practical for large datasets and faithful to the theoretical elegance of RePair.
Cite as

Rahul Varki, Travis Gagie, and Christina Boucher. Efficient Grammar Compression via RLZ-Based RePair. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 5:1-5:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{varki_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.5,
  author =	{Varki, Rahul and Gagie, Travis and Boucher, Christina},
  title =	{{Efficient Grammar Compression via RLZ-Based RePair}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{5:1--5:15},
  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.2026.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259310},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: RePair, RLZ, Grammar Compression}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.11
Matching Regular-Typed Pattern Languages: Quadratic-Time Algorithms

Authors: Yuya Uezato

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

Abstract
Pattern languages (PAT) are a class of languages generated by expressions called patterns that may contain variables. In a pattern, each variable can be instantiated with an arbitrary string. Typed pattern languages extend PAT by associating a type (constraint) with each variable that restricts the domain of allowed substitutions. In this paper, we study regular-typed PAT (PATwRT), where all types are represented either by a regular expression or by an ε-NFA. We consider the PATwRT matching problem for patterns with a single repeated variable of the form P = α₁ β α₂ β ⋯ β α_K. We present simple algorithms whose running time is linear in K and quadratic in the input length N, with polynomial dependence on the sizes of the type representations. Our results extend previous quadratic-time work in two directions: (1) the quadratic-time algorithm for untyped PAT of Fernau et al. (STACS 2015), and (2) the quadratic-time algorithm for the restricted PATwRT K = 3, i.e., α₁ β α₂ β α₃ of Nogami and Terauchi (MFCS 2025).
Cite as

Yuya Uezato. Matching Regular-Typed Pattern Languages: Quadratic-Time Algorithms. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 11:1-11:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{uezato:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.11,
  author =	{Uezato, Yuya},
  title =	{{Matching Regular-Typed Pattern Languages: Quadratic-Time Algorithms}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{11:1--11:20},
  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.2026.11},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259374},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.11},
  annote =	{Keywords: Pattern languages, Regular expressions, String algorithms}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.15
Improved Approximation Ratios for the Shortest Common Superstring Problem with Reverse Complements

Authors: Ryosuke Yamano and Tetsuo Shibuya

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

Abstract
The Shortest Common Superstring (SCS) problem asks for the shortest string that contains each of a given set of strings as a substring. Its reverse-complement variant, the Shortest Common Superstring problem with Reverse Complements (SCS-RC), naturally arises in bioinformatics applications, where for each input string, either the string itself or its reverse complement must appear as a substring of the superstring. The well-known MGREEDY algorithm for the standard SCS constructs a superstring by first computing an optimal cycle cover on the overlap graph and then concatenating the strings corresponding to the cycles, while its refined variant, TGREEDY, further improves the approximation ratio. Although the original 4- and 3-approximation bounds of these algorithms have been successively improved for the standard SCS, no such progress has been made for the reverse-complement setting. A previous study extended MGREEDY to SCS-RC with a 4-approximation guarantee and briefly suggested that extending TGREEDY to the reverse-complement setting could achieve a 3-approximation. In this work, we strengthen these results by proving that the extensions of MGREEDY and TGREEDY to the reverse-complement setting achieve 3.75- and 2.875-approximation ratios, respectively. Our analysis extends the classical proofs for the standard SCS to handle the bidirectional overlaps introduced by reverse complements. These results provide the first formal improvement of approximation guarantees for SCS-RC, with the 2.875-approximate algorithm currently representing the best known bound for this problem.
Cite as

Ryosuke Yamano and Tetsuo Shibuya. Improved Approximation Ratios for the Shortest Common Superstring Problem with Reverse Complements. In 37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 369, pp. 15:1-15:11, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{yamano_et_al:LIPIcs.CPM.2026.15,
  author =	{Yamano, Ryosuke and Shibuya, Tetsuo},
  title =	{{Improved Approximation Ratios for the Shortest Common Superstring Problem with Reverse Complements}},
  booktitle =	{37th Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching (CPM 2026)},
  pages =	{15:1--15:11},
  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.2026.15},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259412},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CPM.2026.15},
  annote =	{Keywords: Shortest Common Superstring, Approximation Algorithms, DNA Sequencing}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.12
Strategy Repair in Reachability Games via a Graph Quotientation

Authors: Tiziana Calamoneri, Pierre Gaillard, Giacomo Paesani, and Giuseppe Perelli

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

Abstract
Reachability Games over graphs (RGs) are a powerful modelling tool for synthesis and planning. The solutions to RGs are strategies that are used in program design. Sometimes, due to model deviation at execution time, specification updates, or simply a bug, the strategy provided as a solution to an RG no longer works. Strategy Repair aims to solve this problem by adjusting strategies with a minimum number of modifications. Such a minimisation requirement is motivated by the costs that one may incur when implementing the new strategy. To minimise implementation costs, one wants to reuse as much of the provided strategy as possible. In the literature, Strategy Repair has been investigated from both theoretical and practical perspectives. First, it has been shown to be NP-complete. Second, two algorithmic approaches have been proposed to tackle the problem in practice, one provides an optimal solution, the other an approximated solution. Both approaches underutilise the graph-theoretical properties of games, which could significantly improve their performance and accuracy (in the case of approximation algorithms). This paper provides a graph-theoretic characterisation of Strategy Repair that provably improves every algorithmic approach to solving the problem. It does so by introducing a new notion of quotient graph that allows us to identify and merge those vertices that are equivalent from the perspective of every solution to the problem. This way, solving Strategy Repair can be done in a reduced instance, which we call the quotient game. The approach not only reduces the problem’s input size, but also improves the effectiveness of MustFix, an optimisation condition previously introduced for the problem. Besides the theoretical characterisation, we test our approach empirically by running experiments to demonstrate improvements over the quotient graph approach.
Cite as

Tiziana Calamoneri, Pierre Gaillard, Giacomo Paesani, and Giuseppe Perelli. Strategy Repair in Reachability Games via a Graph Quotientation. In 20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 370, pp. 12:1-12:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{calamoneri_et_al:LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.12,
  author =	{Calamoneri, Tiziana and Gaillard, Pierre and Paesani, Giacomo and Perelli, Giuseppe},
  title =	{{Strategy Repair in Reachability Games via a Graph Quotientation}},
  booktitle =	{20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026)},
  pages =	{12:1--12:16},
  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.2026.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-260481},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: Reachability Games, Strategy Repair, Strategic Reasoning, Automated Reasoning}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.2
On the Fragile Complexity of Geometric Algorithms

Authors: Boris Aronov, Mayank Goswami, John Iacono, and Indu Ramesh

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

Abstract
Surprisingly, the question of bounding the maximum number of operations undergone by each individual element in an algorithm - known as the fragile complexity of the algorithm - has not received much attention. In a foundational paper, Afshani et al. (2019) developed the concept of fragility and explored classic problems such as sorting and selection from this perspective. Motivated by a suggestion for future research by Afshani et al., we initiate a study of fragile complexity in computational geometry. We obtain bounds on several time-honored questions in 2D such as computing the maxima, closest pair, convex hull, triangulation, and approximate Euclidean Minimum Spanning Tree (apx-EMST). Our algorithms for the maxima, convex hull, and triangulation problems are competitive with the classical algorithms in terms of worst-case runtime and guarantee polylogarithmic fragility. We present an O(nlog²n) time algorithm that returns a 1.0125-apx-EMST and achieves O(log² n) fragility, thus matching the best known performance up to polylogarithmic factors.
Cite as

Boris Aronov, Mayank Goswami, John Iacono, and Indu Ramesh. On the Fragile Complexity of Geometric Algorithms. In 20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 370, pp. 2:1-2:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{aronov_et_al:LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.2,
  author =	{Aronov, Boris and Goswami, Mayank and Iacono, John and Ramesh, Indu},
  title =	{{On the Fragile Complexity of Geometric Algorithms}},
  booktitle =	{20th Scandinavian Symposium on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2026)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:18},
  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.2026.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-260386},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2026.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fragile complexity, convex hull, maxima, closest pair, algorithmic complexity}
}
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.2026.52
Online Packing of Orthogonal Polygons

Authors: Tim Gerlach, Benjamin Hennies, and Linda Kleist

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

Abstract
While rectangular and box-shaped objects dominate the classic discourse of theoretic investigations, a fascinating frontier lies in packing more complex shapes. Given recent insights that convex polygons do not allow for constant competitive online algorithms for diverse variants under translation, we study orthogonal polygons, in particular of small complexity. For translational packings of orthogonal 6-gons, we show that the competitive ratio of any online algorithm that aims to pack the items into a minimal number of unit bins is in Ω(n/(log n)), where n denotes the number of objects. In contrast, we show that constant competitive algorithms exist when the orthogonal 6-gons are symmetric or small. For (orthogonally convex) orthogonal 8-gons, we show that the trivial n-competitive algorithm, which places each item in its own bin, is best-possible, i.e., every online algorithm has an asymptotic competitive ratio of at least n. This implies that for general orthogonal polygons, the trivial algorithm is best possible. Interestingly, for packing degenerate orthogonal polygons (with thickness 0), called skeletons, the change in complexity is even more drastic. While constant competitive algorithms for 6-skeletons exist, no online algorithm for 8-skeletons achieves a competitive ratio better than n. For other packing variants of orthogonal 6-gons under translation, our insights imply the following consequences. The asymptotic competitive ratio of any online algorithm is in Ω(n/(log n)) for strip packing, and there exist online algorithms with competitive ratios in O(1) for perimeter packing, or in O(√n) for minimizing the area of the bounding box. Moreover, the critical packing density is positive (if every object individually fits into the interior of a unit bin).
Cite as

Tim Gerlach, Benjamin Hennies, and Linda Kleist. Online Packing of Orthogonal Polygons. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 52:1-52:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{gerlach_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.52,
  author =	{Gerlach, Tim and Hennies, Benjamin and Kleist, Linda},
  title =	{{Online Packing of Orthogonal Polygons}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{52:1--52:17},
  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.2026.52},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258589},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.52},
  annote =	{Keywords: Packing, orthogonal polygon, algorithm, offline, online, competitive ratio, bin packing, strip packing, perimeter packing, critical density, 6-gon, 8-gon, L-shape, Z-shape, skeleton}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.16
Lozenge Tiling by Computing Distances

Authors: Jean-Marie Favreau, Yan Gerard, Pascal Lafourcade, and Léo Robert

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

Abstract
The Calisson puzzle is a recent tiling game in which one must tile a triangular grid inside a hexagon with lozenges, under the constraint that certain prescribed edges must remain tile boundaries and that adjacent lozenges along these edges have different orientations. We present the first polynomial-time algorithm for this problem, with running time O(n³) for a hexagon of side length n. This algorithm, called the advancing surface algorithm, can be executed in a simple and intuitive way, even by hand with a pencil and an eraser. Its apparent simplicity conceals a deeper algorithmic reinterpretation of the classical ideas of John Conway and William Thurston, which we revisit from a theoretical computer science perspective. We introduce a graph-theoretic and difference constraints overlay that complements Thurston’s theory of lozenge tilings, revealing its intrinsic algorithmic structure and extending its scope to tiling problems with interior constraints and without necessarily boundary conditions. In Thurston’s approach, lozenge tilings are lifted to monotone stepped surfaces in the three-dimensional cubic lattice and projected back to the plane using height functions, reducing the tiling problem to the computation of heights. We show that, at an algorithmic level, selecting a monotone surface corresponds to selecting a directed cut (dicut) in a periodic directed graph, while height functions are solutions of a system of difference constraints. In this formulation, a region is tilable if and only if the associated weighted directed graph contains no cycle of strictly negative total weight. This new graph layer completing Thurston’s theory shows that Bellman–Ford’s shortest path algorithm is the only algorithmic primitive needed to decide feasibility and compute solutions. In particular, our framework allows us to decide whether the infinite triangular grid can be tiled while respecting a finite set of prescribed local constraints, a setting in which no boundary conditions are available.
Cite as

Jean-Marie Favreau, Yan Gerard, Pascal Lafourcade, and Léo Robert. Lozenge Tiling by Computing Distances. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 16:1-16:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{favreau_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.16,
  author =	{Favreau, Jean-Marie and Gerard, Yan and Lafourcade, Pascal and Robert, L\'{e}o},
  title =	{{Lozenge Tiling by Computing Distances}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:21},
  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.2026.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257350},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: Tiling, Lozenge, Directed Graph, Dicut, Difference Constraints, Bellman-Ford}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.17
Sorting Magazines and Boxes

Authors: Gabriele Fici, Manal Mohamed, and Jakub Radoszewski

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

Abstract
It is a rainy Sunday. Agata has decided to sort the magazines on her shelf. Because the magazines are quite thin, she refuses to insert one between two others, preferring to move them only to the ends of the shelf. She has conceived a strategy for this but is unsure of its efficiency. Meanwhile, in the adjacent room, her three-year-old son, Szymon, has just finished his Montessori tower puzzle and is figuring out how to put it away. He has adopted a very intuitive approach to nesting the boxes, though he is not certain it will ultimately succeed. Agata and Szymon are employing very primitive strategies. While many sorting algorithms are remarkably simple to explain and implement-specifically, the class of in-place sorting algorithms with 𝒪(n²) worst-case and average-case running time and constant space requirements (e.g., Bubble Sort, Gnome Sort)-the strategies discussed here offer a unique perspective on "intuitive" sorting. Our contribution aims to enrich the field of simple sorting algorithms. Interestingly, determining the exact worst-case complexity of some of the proposed algorithms remains an open problem.
Cite as

Gabriele Fici, Manal Mohamed, and Jakub Radoszewski. Sorting Magazines and Boxes. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 17:1-17:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{fici_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.17,
  author =	{Fici, Gabriele and Mohamed, Manal and Radoszewski, Jakub},
  title =	{{Sorting Magazines and Boxes}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:13},
  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.2026.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257368},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: Sorting algorithm, analysis of algorithms, intuitive sorting}
}
Document
Invited Talk
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.3
Building Relational Circuits (Invited Talk)

Authors: Florent Capelli

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

Abstract
We review two algorithms which allow to build a factorized representation of the answers set of join queries. In a nutshell, the representation builds a circuit representing the answers set of a join query by starting from atomic relations and iteratively combine them by either constructing the Cartesian product or the disjoint union of previously computed relations. The first one can be seen as the trace of the celebrated Yannakakis algorithm, building the answer set from the inputs to the output of the circuit while the second adopts a top-down approach which can be seen as a generalization of the exhaustive DPLL algorithm, originally designed to solve the #SAT problem.
Cite as

Florent Capelli. Building Relational Circuits (Invited Talk). In 29th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 365, pp. 3:1-3:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{capelli:LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.3,
  author =	{Capelli, Florent},
  title =	{{Building Relational Circuits}},
  booktitle =	{29th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2026)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:20},
  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.2026.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-256172},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2026.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Conjunctive queries, factorized databases, knowledge compilation}
}
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
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.24
Foremost, Fastest, Shortest: Temporal Graph Realization Under Various Path Metrics

Authors: Justine Cauvi, Nils Morawietz, and Laurent Viennot

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

Abstract
In this work, we follow the current trend on temporal graph realization, where one is given a property P and the goal is to determine whether there is a temporal graph, that is, a graph where the edge set changes over time, with property P. We consider the problems where the given property P is a prescribed matrix for the duration, length, or earliest arrival time of pairwise temporal paths. This means that we are given a matrix D and ask whether there is a temporal graph such that for any ordered pair of vertices (s,t), D_{s,t} equals the duration (length, or earliest arrival time, respectively) of any temporal path from s to t minimizing that specific temporal path metric. For shortest and earliest arrival temporal paths, we are the first to consider these problems as far as we know. We analyze these problems for many settings such as: strict and non-strict paths, periodic and non-periodic temporal graphs, and limited number of labels per edge (limited number of occurrences per edge over time). In contrast to all other path metrics, we show that for the earliest arrival times, we can achieve polynomial-time algorithms in periodic and non-periodic temporal graphs and for strict and and non-strict paths. However, the problem becomes NP-hard when the matrix does not contain a single integer but a set or range of possible allowed values. As we show, the problem can still be solved efficiently in this scenario, when the number of entries with more than one value is small, that is, we develop an FPT-algorithm for the number of such entries. For the setting of fastest paths, we achieve new hardness results that answers an open question by Klobas, Mertzios, Molter, and Spirakis [Theor. Comput. Sci. '25] about the parameterized complexity of the problem with respect to the vertex cover number and significantly improves over a previous hardness result for the feedback vertex set number. When considering shortest paths, we show that the periodic versions are polynomial-time solvable whereas the non-periodic versions become NP-hard.
Cite as

Justine Cauvi, Nils Morawietz, and Laurent Viennot. Foremost, Fastest, Shortest: Temporal Graph Realization Under Various Path Metrics. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 24:1-24:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{cauvi_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.24,
  author =	{Cauvi, Justine and Morawietz, Nils and Viennot, Laurent},
  title =	{{Foremost, Fastest, Shortest: Temporal Graph Realization Under Various Path Metrics}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:19},
  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.2026.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255139},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: network design, temporal paths, foremost paths, fastest paths, shortest paths, non-strict paths, periodic temporal graphs}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.68
Dynamic Pattern Matching with Wildcards

Authors: Arshia Ataee Naeini, Amir-Parsa Mobed, Masoud Seddighin, and Saeed Seddighin

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

Abstract
We study the fully dynamic pattern matching problem where the pattern may contain up to k wildcard symbols, each matching any symbol of the alphabet. Both the text and the pattern are subject to updates (insert, delete, change). We design an algorithm with 𝒪(n log² n) preprocessing and update/query time 𝒪̃(kn^{k/{k+1}} + k² log n). The bound is truly sublinear for a constant k, and sublinear when k = o(log n). We further complement our results with a conditional lower bound: assuming subquadratic preprocessing time, achieving truly sublinear update time for the case k = Ω(log n) would contradict the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH). Finally, we develop sublinear algorithms for two special cases: - If the pattern contains w non-wildcard symbols, we give an algorithm with preprocessing time 𝒪(nw) and update time 𝒪(w + log n), which is truly sublinear whenever w is truly sublinear. - Using FFT technique combined with block decomposition, we design a deterministic truly sublinear algorithm with preprocessing time 𝒪(n^{1.8}) and update time 𝒪(n^{0.8} log n) for the case that there are at most two non-wildcards.
Cite as

Arshia Ataee Naeini, Amir-Parsa Mobed, Masoud Seddighin, and Saeed Seddighin. Dynamic Pattern Matching with Wildcards. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 68:1-68:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{naeini_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.68,
  author =	{Naeini, Arshia Ataee and Mobed, Amir-Parsa and Seddighin, Masoud and Seddighin, Saeed},
  title =	{{Dynamic Pattern Matching with Wildcards}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{68:1--68:20},
  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.2026.68},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255579},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.68},
  annote =	{Keywords: pattern matching, wildcards, dynamic algorithms, string algorithms, data structures}
}
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}
}
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