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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.35

On Computing the (Exact) Fréchet Distance with a Frog

Authors: Jacobus Conradi, Ivor van der Hoog, and Eva Rotenberg

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

Abstract

The continuous Fréchet distance 𝒟_F(π,σ) between two polygonal curves π and σ is classically computed by exploring the free space diagram over the two curves. [SoCG'25] recently proposed a radically different approach: they approximate 𝒟_F(π,σ) by computing paths in a discrete graph that models a joint traversal of π and σ, recursively bisecting edges until the discrete distance converges to the continuous one. They implement their "frog-based" technique, and claim that it yields substantial practical speedups compared to the state-of-the-art implementations. In this paper, we revisit this technique. We observe that, in its current form, it has three limitations: (i) it does not use exact arithmetic, (ii) its recursive bisection introduces the required monotonicity events to realise the Fréchet distance only in the limit, and (iii) it applies a heuristic simplification technique which is overly conservative. Motivated by theoretical interest, we develop new techniques that guarantee exactness, polynomial-time convergence and near-optimal lossless simplifications. We provide an open-source C++ implementation of our variant. Our primary contribution is an extensive empirical evaluation on a broad, publically available, suite of real-world and synthetic data sets. Among the frog-based variants, exact computation indeed introduces overhead and increases median runtime. Yet, our new approach is often faster in the worst case, worst ten percent, or even the average runtime due to its worst-case convergence guarantees. More surprisingly, the implementation of [SoCG'19] dominates all frog-based implementations in performance - this finding contrasts previously published claims. These results provide a much-needed nuanced perspective on the capabilities and limitations of frog-based techniques: we showcase its theoretical appeal, but highlight its limited practical feasibility.

Cite as

Jacobus Conradi, Ivor van der Hoog, and Eva Rotenberg. On Computing the (Exact) Fréchet Distance with a Frog. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 35:1-35:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{conradi_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.35,
  author =	{Conradi, Jacobus and van der Hoog, Ivor and Rotenberg, Eva},
  title =	{{On Computing the (Exact) Fr\'{e}chet Distance with a Frog}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{35:1--35:20},
  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.2026.35},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258414},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.35},
  annote =	{Keywords: Algorithms engineering, Fr\'{e}chet distance}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.48

FPT Approximations for Capacitated Sum of Radii and Diameters

Authors: Arnold Filtser and Ameet Gadekar

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

Abstract

The Capacitated Sum of Radii problem involves partitioning a set of points P, where each point p ∈ P has capacity U_p, into k clusters that minimize the sum of cluster radii, such that the number of points in the cluster centered at point p is at most U_p. We begin by showing that the problem is APX-hard, and that under gap-ETH there is no parameterized approximation scheme (FPT-AS). We then construct a ≈5.83-approximation algorithm in FPT time (improving a previous ≈7.61 approximation in FPT time). Our results also hold when the objective is a general monotone symmetric norm of radii. We also improve the approximation factors for the uniform capacity case, and for the closely related problem of Capacitated Sum of Diameters.

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Arnold Filtser and Ameet Gadekar. FPT Approximations for Capacitated Sum of Radii and Diameters. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 48:1-48:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{filtser_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.48,
  author =	{Filtser, Arnold and Gadekar, Ameet},
  title =	{{FPT Approximations for Capacitated Sum of Radii and Diameters}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{48:1--48:18},
  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.2026.48},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258545},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.48},
  annote =	{Keywords: clustering, sum of radii, sum of diameter, capacitated clustering, fpt}
}

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.SoCG.2026.62

Computing the Bottleneck Distance Between Persistent Homology Transforms

Authors: Michael Kerber and Elena Xinyi Wang

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

Abstract

The Persistent Homology Transform (PHT) summarizes a shape in ℝ^m by collecting persistence diagrams obtained from linear height filtrations in all directions on 𝕊^{m-1}. It enjoys strong theoretical guarantees, including continuity, stability, and injectivity. A natural way to compare two PHTs is to use the bottleneck distance between their diagrams as the direction varies. Prior work has either compared PHTs by sampling directions or, in 2D, computed the exact integral of bottleneck distance over all angles via a kinetic data structure. We improve the integral objective to Õ(n⁵) in place of the earlier Õ(n⁶) bound, where n denotes the number of simplices. For the max objective, we give an Õ(n³) expected-time algorithm in ℝ² and an Õ(n⁵) expected-time algorithm in ℝ³.

Cite as

Michael Kerber and Elena Xinyi Wang. Computing the Bottleneck Distance Between Persistent Homology Transforms. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 62:1-62:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{kerber_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.62,
  author =	{Kerber, Michael and Wang, Elena Xinyi},
  title =	{{Computing the Bottleneck Distance Between Persistent Homology Transforms}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{62:1--62:15},
  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.2026.62},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258693},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.62},
  annote =	{Keywords: Kinetic data structure, bottleneck distance, persistent homology transform, vineyards}
}

Document

Media Exposition

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.102

Tracking a Set of Moving Objects with Minimal Peak Power (Media Exposition)

Authors: Sándor P. Fekete, Malte Hoffmann, Chek-Manh Loi, and Michael Perk

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

Abstract

A common sensing problem is to use a set of stationary tracking locations to monitor a collection of moving devices. Given n objects that need to be tracked, each following its own trajectory, and m stationary traffic control stations, each with a sensing region that can be changed over time; how should we adjust the individual sensor ranges in order to optimize energy consumption? We illustrate how to combine geometric insights with mathematical optimization to find optimal solutions for the min max variant of the problem, which aims at minimizing peak power consumption. Instances with 500 moving objects and 25 stations can be solved in the order of seconds for scenarios that take minutes to play out in the real world, demonstrating real-time capability of our methods.

Cite as

Sándor P. Fekete, Malte Hoffmann, Chek-Manh Loi, and Michael Perk. Tracking a Set of Moving Objects with Minimal Peak Power (Media Exposition). In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 102:1-102:7, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{fekete_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.102,
  author =	{Fekete, S\'{a}ndor P. and Hoffmann, Malte and Loi, Chek-Manh and Perk, Michael},
  title =	{{Tracking a Set of Moving Objects with Minimal Peak Power}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{102:1--102:7},
  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.2026.102},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259087},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.102},
  annote =	{Keywords: Set cover, kinetic problems, geometric optimization, exact optimization}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.8

Directed Grabbing Games or How to Politely Grab the Maximum Number of Olives in a Reception

Authors: Jean-Claude Bermond, Michel Cosnard, Frédéric Havet, Takako Kodate, and Stéphane Pérennes

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

Abstract

We introduce and study the directed grabbing game, a directed variation of the graph grabbing game played by two players Alice and Bob on a weighted acyclic digraph D. Alice plays first and then they play alternately. At a given odd (resp. even) move, Alice (resp. Bob) chooses a sink, that is a vertex of out-degree 0, grabs the weight (olives) on it and then removes the vertex. The aim of each player is to grab a maximum weight, i.e. a maximum number of olives. This game is inspired by the behaviour that guests are expected to adopt during a reception or cocktail party. We first consider the case where hors d'oeuvre are arranged on slightly spaced parallel lines, such that politeness allows one to take the first hors d'oeuvre from each line. This corresponds to the directed grabbing game on a union of disjoint directed paths. We give an algorithm that, given a weighted digraph D of order n which is the union of q disjoint directed paths, computes an optimal play in O(nlog q) time. Then we consider the "pissaladière case" where the digraph D is a directed (p× q)-grid. We show that, depending on the parity of pq, one player, called Content, has a strategic advantage. Specifically, Content is Alice when pq is odd and Bob when pq is even. We present some strategies that enable Content to remove some large sets of vertices (of order pq/2) in directed grids. We then derive that Content can remove any given vertex that is not in the border of the grid. Finally, in the case where each vertex contains either zero or one olive, we prove that Content can secure the grabbing of around one third of the olives.

Cite as

Jean-Claude Bermond, Michel Cosnard, Frédéric Havet, Takako Kodate, and Stéphane Pérennes. Directed Grabbing Games or How to Politely Grab the Maximum Number of Olives in a Reception. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 8:1-8:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bermond_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.8,
  author =	{Bermond, Jean-Claude and Cosnard, Michel and Havet, Fr\'{e}d\'{e}ric and Kodate, Takako and P\'{e}rennes, St\'{e}phane},
  title =	{{Directed Grabbing Games or How to Politely Grab the Maximum Number of Olives in a Reception}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:19},
  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.2026.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257273},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: grabbing games, paths, directed grids}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.33

Higher Hardness Results for the Reconfiguration of Odd Matchings

Authors: Joseph Dorfer

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

Abstract

We study the reconfiguration of odd matchings of combinatorial graphs. Odd matchings are matchings that cover all but one vertex of a graph. A reconfiguration step, or flip, is an operation that matches the isolated vertex and, consequently, isolates another vertex. The flip graph of odd matchings is a graph that has all odd matchings of a graph as vertices and an edge between two vertices if their corresponding matchings can be transformed into one another via a single flip. We show that computing the diameter of the flip graph of odd matchings is Π₂^p-hard. This complements a recent result by Wulf [FOCS25] that it is Π₂^p-hard to compute the diameter of the flip graph of perfect matchings where a flip swaps matching edges along a single cycle of unbounded size. Further, we show that computing the radius of the flip graph of odd matchings is Σ₃^p-hard. The respective decision problems for the diameter and the radius are also complete in the respective level of the polynomial hierarchy. This shows that computing the radius of the flip graph of odd matchings is provably harder than computing its diameter, unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses. Finally, we reduce set cover to the problem of finding shortest flip sequences. As a consequence, we show APX-hardness and that the problem cannot be approximated by a sublogarithmic factor. By doing so, we answer a question asked by Aichholzer, Brenner, Dorfer, Hoang, Perz, Rieck, and Verciani [GD25].

Cite as

Joseph Dorfer. Higher Hardness Results for the Reconfiguration of Odd Matchings. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 33:1-33:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{dorfer:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.33,
  author =	{Dorfer, Joseph},
  title =	{{Higher Hardness Results for the Reconfiguration of Odd Matchings}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{33:1--33:16},
  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.2026.33},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255222},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.33},
  annote =	{Keywords: Graph Reconfiguration Problems, Flip Graphs, Polynomial Hierarchy, APX-hardness}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.6

A Dimension-Reducing Fréchet Simplification Oracle

Authors: Boris Aronov, Tsuri Farhana, Matthew J. Katz, and Indu Ramesh

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 359, 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)

Abstract

Let P be a polygonal curve with n vertices in the plane. We construct a data structure of size O(n log n) suited for simplification queries of the following kind. Given a query line 𝓁 and an integer k ≥ 1, find a curve Q on 𝓁 with at most k vertices that minimizes the discrete Fréchet distance to P, among all such curves. Using our data structure, a query can be handled in O(k² log³ n + k log⁴n) time. More generally, a geometric tree T on n vertices in the plane can be preprocessed into a near-linear-size structure so that, given a pair u, v of its vertices, a line 𝓁, and an integer k ≥ 1, one can find a curve Q on 𝓁 with at most k vertices that minimizes the discrete Fréchet distance to the path from u to v in T, in time O(k² polylog n). For the general dimension-reduction problem, where P is a curve in ℝ^d (d ≥ 3), 0 < ε₀ < 1 is a real parameter, and a query specifies a g-flat h (1 ≤ g ≤ d-1) and an integer k ≥ 1, we construct a data structure of size O(nlog n + f(ε₀) n), where f(ε₀) = (1+1/ε₀)^{(d-1)/2}, that allows us to find a curve Q on h with at most k vertices, whose discrete Fréchet distance to P is at most 1+ε₀ times the distance of Q^* to P, where Q^* is such a curve that minimizes the distance to P. The query handling time is O(f(ε₀) k² log² n).

Cite as

Boris Aronov, Tsuri Farhana, Matthew J. Katz, and Indu Ramesh. A Dimension-Reducing Fréchet Simplification Oracle. In 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 359, pp. 6:1-6:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{aronov_et_al:LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.6,
  author =	{Aronov, Boris and Farhana, Tsuri and Katz, Matthew J. and Ramesh, Indu},
  title =	{{A Dimension-Reducing Fr\'{e}chet Simplification Oracle}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-408-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{359},
  editor =	{Chen, Ho-Lin and Hon, Wing-Kai and Tsai, Meng-Tsung},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-249149},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: Computational geometry, discrete Fr\'{e}chet distance, curve simplification oracle, restricted minimum enclosing disk queries}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.24

Fréchet Distance in Unweighted Planar Graphs

Authors: Ivor van der Hoog, Thijs van der Horst, Eva Rotenberg, and Lasse Wulf

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

Abstract

The Fréchet distance is a distance measure between trajectories in ℝ^d or walks in a graph G. Given constant-time shortest path queries, the Discrete Fréchet distance D_G(P, Q) between two walks P and Q can be computed in O(|P|⋅|Q|) time using a dynamic program. Driemel, van der Hoog, and Rotenberg [SoCG'22] show that for weighted planar graphs this approach is likely tight, as there can be no strongly-subquadratic algorithm to compute a 1.01-approximation of D_G(P, Q) unless the Orthogonal Vector Hypothesis (OVH) fails. Such quadratic-time conditional lower bounds are common to many Fréchet distance variants. However, they can be circumvented by assuming that the input comes from some well-behaved class: There exist (1+ε)-approximations, both in weighted graphs and in ℝ^d, that take near-linear time for c-packed or κ-straight walks in the graph. In ℝ^d there also exists a near-linear time algorithm to compute the Fréchet distance whenever all input edges are long compared to the distance. We consider computing the Fréchet distance in unweighted planar graphs. We show that there exist no strongly-subquadratic 1.25-approximations of the discrete Fréchet distance between two disjoint simple paths in an unweighted planar graph in strongly subquadratic time, unless OVH fails. This improves the previous lower bound, both in terms of generality and approximation factor. We subsequently show that adding graph structure circumvents this lower bound: If the graph is a regular tiling with unit-weighted edges, then there exists an Õ((|P|+|Q|)^{1.5})-time algorithm to compute D_G(P, Q). Our result has natural implications in the plane, as it allows us to define a new class of well-behaved curves that facilitate (1+ε)-approximations of their discrete Fréchet distance in subquadratic time.

Cite as

Ivor van der Hoog, Thijs van der Horst, Eva Rotenberg, and Lasse Wulf. Fréchet Distance in Unweighted Planar Graphs. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 24:1-24:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{vanderhoog_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.24,
  author =	{van der Hoog, Ivor and van der Horst, Thijs and Rotenberg, Eva and Wulf, Lasse},
  title =	{{Fr\'{e}chet Distance in Unweighted Planar Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:16},
  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.2025.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-244924},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fr\'{e}chet distance, planar graphs, lower bounds, approximation algorithms}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.67

Compact Representation of Semilinear and Terrain-Like Graphs

Authors: Jean Cardinal and Yelena Yuditsky

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

Abstract

We consider the existence and construction of biclique covers of graphs, consisting of coverings of their edge sets by complete bipartite graphs. The size of such a cover is the sum of the sizes of the bicliques. Small-size biclique covers of graphs are ubiquitous in computational geometry, and have been shown to be useful compact representations of graphs. We give a brief survey of classical and recent results on biclique covers and their applications, and give new families of graphs having biclique covers of near-linear size. In particular, we show that semilinear graphs, whose edges are defined by linear relations in bounded dimensional space, always have biclique covers of size O(npolylog n). This generalizes many previously known results on special classes of graphs including interval graphs, permutation graphs, and graphs of bounded boxicity, but also new classes such as intersection graphs of L-shapes in the plane. It also directly implies the bounds for Zarankiewicz’s problem derived by Basit, Chernikov, Starchenko, Tao, and Tran (Forum Math. Sigma, 2021). We also consider capped graphs, also known as terrain-like graphs, defined as ordered graphs forbidding a certain ordered pattern on four vertices. Terrain-like graphs contain the induced subgraphs of terrain visibility graphs. We give an elementary proof that these graphs admit biclique partitions of size O(nlog³ n). This provides a simple combinatorial analogue of a classical result from Agarwal, Alon, Aronov, and Suri on polygon visibility graphs (Discrete Comput. Geom. 1994). Finally, we prove that there exists families of unit disk graphs on n vertices that do not admit biclique coverings of size o(n^{4/3}), showing that we are unlikely to improve on Szemerédi-Trotter type incidence bounds for higher-degree semialgebraic graphs.

Cite as

Jean Cardinal and Yelena Yuditsky. Compact Representation of Semilinear and Terrain-Like Graphs. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 67:1-67:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{cardinal_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.67,
  author =	{Cardinal, Jean and Yuditsky, Yelena},
  title =	{{Compact Representation of Semilinear and Terrain-Like Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{67:1--67:19},
  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.2025.67},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245359},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.67},
  annote =	{Keywords: Biclique covers, intersection graphs, visibility graphs, Zarankiewicz’s problem}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.110

Faster Exponential Algorithms for Cut Problems via Geometric Data Structures

Authors: László Kozma and Junqi Tan

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

Abstract

For many hard computational problems, simple algorithms that run in time 2ⁿ ⋅ n^O(1) arise, say, from enumerating all subsets of a size-n set. Finding (exponentially) faster algorithms is a natural goal that has driven much of the field of exact exponential algorithms (e.g., see Fomin and Kratsch, 2010). In this paper we obtain algorithms with running time O(1.9999977ⁿ) on input graphs with n vertices, for the following well-studied problems: - d-Cut: find a proper cut in which no vertex has more than d neighbors on the other side of the cut; - Internal Partition: find a proper cut in which every vertex has at least as many neighbors on its side of the cut as on the other side; and - (α,β)-Domination: given intervals α,β ⊆ [0,n], find a subset S of the vertices, so that for every vertex v ∈ S the number of neighbors of v in S is from α and for every vertex v ∉ S, the number of neighbors of v in S is from β. Our algorithms are exceedingly simple, combining the split and list technique (Horowitz and Sahni, 1974; Williams, 2005) with a tool from computational geometry: orthogonal range searching in the moderate dimensional regime (Chan, 2017). Our technique is applicable to the decision, optimization and counting versions of these problems and easily extends to various generalizations with more fine-grained, vertex-specific constraints, as well as to directed, balanced, and other variants. Algorithms with running times of the form cⁿ, for c < 2, were known for the first problem only for constant d, and for the third problem for certain special cases of α and β; for the second problem we are not aware of such results.

Cite as

László Kozma and Junqi Tan. Faster Exponential Algorithms for Cut Problems via Geometric Data Structures. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 110:1-110:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{kozma_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.110,
  author =	{Kozma, L\'{a}szl\'{o} and Tan, Junqi},
  title =	{{Faster Exponential Algorithms for Cut Problems via Geometric Data Structures}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{110:1--110:12},
  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.2025.110},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245796},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.110},
  annote =	{Keywords: graph algorithms, cuts, exponential time, data structures}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.12

Testing Whether a Subgraph Is Convex or Isometric

Authors: Sergio Cabello

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

Abstract

We consider the following two algorithmic problems: given a graph G and a subgraph H ⊆ G, decide whether H is an isometric or a geodesically convex subgraph of G. It is relatively easy to see that the problems can be solved by computing the distances between all pairs of vertices. We provide a conditional lower bound showing that, for sparse graphs with n vertices and Θ(n) edges, we cannot expect to solve the problem in O(n^{2-ε}) time for any constant ε > 0. We also show that the problem can be solved in subquadratic time for planar graphs and in near-linear time for graphs of bounded treewidth. Finally, we provide a near-linear time algorithm for the setting where G is a plane graph and H is defined by a few cycles in G.

Cite as

Sergio Cabello. Testing Whether a Subgraph Is Convex or Isometric. In 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 349, pp. 12:1-12:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{cabello:LIPIcs.WADS.2025.12,
  author =	{Cabello, Sergio},
  title =	{{Testing Whether a Subgraph Is Convex or Isometric}},
  booktitle =	{19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Data Structures (WADS 2025)},
  pages =	{12:1--12:16},
  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.2025.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-242439},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.WADS.2025.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: convex subgraph, isometric subgraph, plane graph}
}

Document

Research

DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.Grossi.4

On Graph Burning and Edge Burning

Authors: Giuseppe F. Italiano, Athanasios L. Konstantinidis, and Manas Jyoti Kashyop

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

Abstract

Graph burning is a deterministic, discrete-time process that models how influence or contagion spreads in a graph. Initially, all vertices are unburned. At each round, one new vertex is chosen to burn. Once a vertex is burned, in the next round each of its unburned neighbors become burned. The process ends when all vertices are burned. The burning number of a graph is the minimum number of rounds needed for the process to end. Very recently, a variant called edge burning was introduced, where instead of vertices we burn edges: at each round one new edge is burned. Once an edge is burned, in the next round all its unburned incident edges become burned. The edge burning number is the minimum number of rounds that are needed to burn all the edges. In this paper, we present a systematic study of edge burning and provide some new results for graph burning. First, we show a tight relationship between the edge burning number and the burning number of a given graph: specifically, their absolute difference is at most 1. Moreover, we show that the edge burning number of a graph is equal to the graph burning number of its line graph. On the computation complexity side, we show that the edge burning problem is NP-complete, but can be solved in linear time on paths, split graphs, and cographs. Furthermore, we give an XP algorithm when the edge burning problem is parameterized by the diameter of the input graph and a linear kernel when parameterized by the neighborhood diversity. For the graph burning problem, we provide 2-approximation algorithms when either the solution is part of the input or forced to form a path.

Cite as

Giuseppe F. Italiano, Athanasios L. Konstantinidis, and Manas Jyoti Kashyop. On Graph Burning and Edge Burning. 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. 4:1-4:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{italiano_et_al:OASIcs.Grossi.4,
  author =	{Italiano, Giuseppe F. and Konstantinidis, Athanasios L. and Kashyop, Manas Jyoti},
  title =	{{On Graph Burning and Edge Burning}},
  booktitle =	{From Strings to Graphs, and Back Again: A Festschrift for Roberto Grossi's 60th Birthday},
  pages =	{4:1--4:18},
  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.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-238039},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.Grossi.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: Burning Number, Graph Burning, Edge Burning, Approximation}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.109

Faster Diameter Computation in Graphs of Bounded Euler Genus

Authors: Kacper Kluk, Marcin Pilipczuk, Michał Pilipczuk, and Giannos Stamoulis

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract

We show that for any fixed integer k ⩾ 0, there exists an algorithm that computes the diameter and the eccentricies of all vertices of an input unweighted, undirected n-vertex graph of Euler genus at most k in time 𝒪_k(n^{2-1/25}). Furthermore, for the more general class of graphs that can be constructed by clique-sums from graphs that are of Euler genus at most k after deletion of at most k vertices, we show an algorithm for the same task that achieves the running time bound 𝒪_k(n^{2-1/356} log^{6k} n). Up to today, the only known subquadratic algorithms for computing the diameter in those graph classes are that of [Ducoffe, Habib, Viennot; SICOMP 2022], [Le, Wulff-Nilsen; SODA 2024], and [Duraj, Konieczny, Potępa; ESA 2024]. These algorithms work in the more general setting of K_h-minor-free graphs, but the running time bound is 𝒪_h(n^{2-c_h}) for some constant c_h > 0 depending on h. That is, our savings in the exponent of the polynomial function of n, as compared to the naive quadratic algorithm, are independent of the parameter k. The main technical ingredient of our work is an improved bound on the number of distance profiles, as defined in [Le, Wulff-Nilsen; SODA 2024], in graphs of bounded Euler genus.

Cite as

Kacper Kluk, Marcin Pilipczuk, Michał Pilipczuk, and Giannos Stamoulis. Faster Diameter Computation in Graphs of Bounded Euler Genus. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 109:1-109:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{kluk_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.109,
  author =	{Kluk, Kacper and Pilipczuk, Marcin and Pilipczuk, Micha{\l} and Stamoulis, Giannos},
  title =	{{Faster Diameter Computation in Graphs of Bounded Euler Genus}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{109:1--109:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.109},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234869},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.109},
  annote =	{Keywords: Diameter, eccentricity, subquadratic algorithms, surface-embeddable graphs}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.36

Faster Fréchet Distance Under Transformations

Authors: Kevin Buchin, Maike Buchin, Zijin Huang, André Nusser, and Sampson Wong

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract

We study the problem of computing the Fréchet distance between two polygonal curves under transformations. First, we consider translations in the Euclidean plane. Given two curves π and σ of total complexity n and a threshold δ ≥ 0, we present an 𝒪̃(n^{7 + 1/3}) time algorithm to determine whether there exists a translation t ∈ ℝ² such that the Fréchet distance between π and σ + t is at most δ. This improves on the previous best result, which is an 𝒪(n⁸) time algorithm. We then generalize this result to any class of rationally parameterized transformations, which includes translation, rotation, scaling, and arbitrary affine transformations. For a class T of rationally parametrized transformations with k degrees of freedom, we show that one can determine whether there is a transformation τ ∈ T such that the Fréchet distance between π and τ(σ) is at most δ in 𝒪̃(n^{3k+4/3}) time.

Cite as

Kevin Buchin, Maike Buchin, Zijin Huang, André Nusser, and Sampson Wong. Faster Fréchet Distance Under Transformations. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 36:1-36:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{buchin_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.36,
  author =	{Buchin, Kevin and Buchin, Maike and Huang, Zijin and Nusser, Andr\'{e} and Wong, Sampson},
  title =	{{Faster Fr\'{e}chet Distance Under Transformations}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{36:1--36:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.36},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234137},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.36},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fr\'{e}chet distance, curve similarity, shape matching}
}

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