On Reverse Shortest Paths in Geometric Proximity Graphs

Let S be a set of n geometric objects of constant complexity (e.g., points, line segments, disks, ellipses) in ℝ², and let ϱ: S× S → ℝ_{≥ 0} be a distance function on S. For a parameter r ≥ 0, we define the proximity graph G(r) = (S,E) where E = {(e₁,e₂) ∈ S×S ∣ e₁≠e₂, ϱ(e₁,e₂) ≤ r}. Given S, s,t ∈ S, and an integer k ≥ 1, the reverse-shortest-path (RSP) problem asks for computing the smallest value r^* ≥ 0 such that G(r^*) contains a path from s to t of length at most k. In this paper we present a general randomized technique that solves the RSP problem efficiently for a large family of geometric objects and distance functions. Using standard, and sometimes more involved, semi-algebraic range-searching techniques, we first give an efficient algorithm for the decision problem, namely, given a value r ≥ 0, determine whether G(r) contains a path from s to t of length at most k. Next, we adapt our decision algorithm and combine it with a random-sampling method to compute r^*, by efficiently performing a binary search over an implicit set of O(n²) candidate values that contains r^*. We illustrate the versatility of our general technique by applying it to a variety of geometric proximity graphs. For example, we obtain (i) an O^*(n^{4/3}) expected-time randomized algorithm (where O^*(⋅) hides polylog(n) factors) for the case where S is a set of pairwise-disjoint line segments in ℝ² and ϱ(e₁,e₂) = min_{x ∈ e₁, y ∈ e₂} ‖x-y‖ (where ‖⋅‖ is the Euclidean distance), and (ii) an O^*(n+m^{4/3}) expected-time randomized algorithm for the case where S is a set of m points lying on an x-monotone polygonal chain T with n vertices, and ϱ(p,q), for p,q ∈ S, is the smallest value h such that the points p' := p+(0,h) and q' := q+(0,h) are visible to each other, i.e., all points on the segment p'q' lie above or on the polygonal chain T.