On the Number of Maximum Empty Boxes Amidst n Points

Abstract

We revisit the following problem (along with its higher dimensional variant): Given a set S of n points inside an axis-parallel rectangle U in the plane, find a maximum-area axis-parallel sub-rectangle that is contained in U but contains no points of S. 

1. We prove that the number of maximum-area empty rectangles amidst n points in the plane is O(n log n 2^alpha(n)), where alpha(n) is the extremely slowly growing inverse of Ackermann's function. The previous best bound, O(n^2), is due to Naamad, Lee, and Hsu (1984).

2. For any d at least 3, we prove that the number of maximum-volume empty boxes amidst n points in R^d is always O(n^d) and sometimes Omega(n^floor(d/2)). 
This is the first superlinear lower bound derived for this problem. 

3. We discuss some algorithmic aspects regarding the search for a maximum empty box in R^3. In particular, we present an algorithm that finds a (1-epsilon)-approximation of the maximum empty box amidst n points in O(epsilon^{-2}  n^{5/3} log^2{n}) time.