Ansgar Grüne

On the geometric dilation of closed curves, graphs, and point sets

Let G be an embedded planar graph whose edges are curves. The detour between two points p and q (on edges or vertices) of G is the ratio between the length of a shortest path connecting p and q in G and their Euclidean distance |pq|. The maximum detour over all pairs of points is called the geometric dilation δ(G). Ebbers-Baumann, Grune and Klein have shown that every finite point set is contained in a planar graph whose geometric dilation is at most 1.678, and some point sets require graphs with dilation δ ≥ π/2 ≈ 1.57. They conjectured that the lower bound is not tight. We use new ideas like the halving pair transformation, a disk packing result and arguments from convex geometry, to prove this conjecture. The lower bound is improved to (1 + 10-11) π/2. The proof relies on halving pairs, pairs of points dividing a given closed curve C in two parts of equal length, and their minimum and maximum distances h and H. Additionally, we analyze curves of constant halving distance (h = H), examine the relation of h to other geometric quantities and prove some new dilation bounds.

The Geometric Dilation of Finite Point Sets

AbstractLet G be an embedded planar graph whose edges may be curves. For two arbitrary points of G, we can compare the length of the shortest path in G connecting them against their Euclidean distance. The supremum of all these ratios is called the geometric dilation of G. Given a finite point set, we would like to know the smallest possible dilation of any graph that contains the given points. In this paper we prove that a dilation of 1.678 is always sufficient, and that π/2 = 1.570... is sometimes necessary in order to accommodate a finite set of points.

Geometric dilation of closed planar curves: New lower bounds

Given two points on a closed planar curve, C, we can divide the length of a shortest connecting path in C by their Euclidean distance. The supremum of these ratios, taken over all pairs of points on the curve, is called the geometric dilation of C. We provide lower bounds for the dilation of closed curves in terms of their geometric properties, and prove that the circle is the only closed curve achieving a dilation of @p/2, which is the smallest dilation possible. Our main tool is a new geometric transformation technique based on the perimeter halving pairs of C.

On the Geometric Dilation of Finite Point Sets

Let G be an embedded planar graph whose edges may be curves. For two arbitrary points of G, we can compare the length of the shortest path in G connecting them against their Euclidean distance. The maximum of all these ratios is called the geometric dilation of G. Given a finite point set, we would like to know the smallest possible dilation of any graph that contains the given points. In this paper we prove that a dilation of 1.678 is always sufficient, and that π/2 = 1.570... is sometimes necessary in order to accommodate a finite set of points.

How Many Lions Are Needed to Clear a Grid

We consider a pursuit-evasion problem where some lions have the task to clear a grid graph whose nodes are initially contaminated. The contamination spreads one step per time unit in each direction not blocked by a lion. A vertex is cleared from its contamination whenever a lion moves to it. Brass et al. [5] showed that n/2 lions are not enough to clear the n x n-grid. In this paper, we consider the same problem in dimension d > 2 and prove that Θ(nd-1/√d) lions are necessary and sufficient to clear the nd-grid. Furthermore, we analyze a problem variant where the lions are also allowed to jump from grid vertices to non-adjacent grid vertices.

On geometric dilation and halving chords

Let G be an embedded planar graph whose edges may be curves. The detour between two points, p and q (on edges or vertices) of G, is the ratio between the shortest path in G between p and q and their Euclidean distance. The supremum over all pairs of points of all these ratios is called the geometric dilation of G. Our research is motivated by the problem of designing graphs of low dilation. We provide a characterization of closed curves of constant halving distance (i.e., curves for which all chords dividing the curve length in half are of constant length) which are useful in this context. We then relate the halving distance of curves to other geometric quantities such as area and width. Among others, this enables us to derive a new upper bound on the geometric dilation of closed curves, as a function of D/w, where D and w are the diameter and width, respectively. We further give lower bounds on the geometric dilation of polygons with n sides as a function of n. Our bounds are tight for centrally symmetric convex polygons.

Embedding point sets into plane graphs of small dilation

Let S be a set of points in the plane. What is the minimum possible dilation of all plane graphs that contain S? Even for a set S as simple as five points evenly placed on the circle, this question seems hard to answer; it is not even clear if there exists a lower bound >1. In this paper we provide the first upper and lower bounds for the embedding problem. Each finite point set can be embedded into the vertex set of a finite triangulation of dilation ≤ 1.1247. Each embedding of a closed convex curve has dilation ≥ 1.00157. Let P be the plane graph that results from intersecting n infinite families of equidistant, parallel lines in general position. Then the vertex set of P has dilation

COMPUTING THE STRETCH FACTOR AND MAXIMUM DETOUR OF PATHS, TREES, AND CYCLES IN THE NORMED SPACE

\geq 2/\sqrt{3} \approx 1.1547

Spanning Ratio and Maximum Detour of Rectilinear Paths in the L1 Plane

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On the density of iterated line segment intersections

The stretch factor and maximum detour of a graph G embedded in a metric space measure how well G approximates the minimum complete graph containing G and the metric space, respectively. In this paper we show that computing the stretch factor of a rectilinear path in L1 plane has a lower bound of Ω(n log n) in the algebraic computation tree model and describe a worst-case O(σn log2 n) time algorithm for computing the stretch factor or maximum detour of a path embedded in the plane with a weighted fixed orientation metric defined by σ ≥ 2 vectors and a worst-case O(n logd n) time algorithm to d ≥ 3 dimensions in L1-metric. We generalize the algorithms to compute the stretch factor or maximum detour of trees and cycles in O(σn logd+1 n) time. We also obtain an optimal O(n) time algorithm for computing the maximum detour of a monotone rectilinear path in L1 plane.