In this paper we carefully combine Fredman's trick [SICOMP'76] and Matousek's approach for dominance product [IPL'91] to obtain powerful results in fine-grained complexity:
The 3SUM hypothesis, the APSP hypothesis and SETH are the three main hypotheses in fine-grained complexity. So far, within the area, the first two hypotheses have mainly been about integer inputs in the Word RAM model of computation. The "Real APSP" and "Real 3SUM" hypotheses, which assert that the APSP and 3SUM hypotheses hold for real-valued inputs in a reasonable version of the Real RAM model, are even more believable than their integer counterparts.
Under the very believable hypothesis that at least one of the Integer 3SUM hypothesis, Integer APSP hypothesis or SETH is true, Abboud, Vassilevska W. and Yu [STOC 2015] showed that a problem called Triangle Collection requires n^{3-o(1)} time on an n-node graph.
Our main result is a nontrivial lower bound for a slight generalization of Triangle Collection, called All-Color-Pairs Triangle Collection, under the even more believable hypothesis that at least one of the Real 3SUM, the Real APSP, and the OV hypotheses is true. Combined with slight modifications of prior reductions, we obtain polynomial conditional lower bounds for problems such as the (static) ST-Max Flow problem and dynamic Max Flow, now under the new weaker hypothesis.
Our main result is built on the following two lines of reductions.
We revisit Hopcroft's problem and related fundamental problems about geometric range searching. Given n points and n lines in the plane, we show how to count the number of point-line incidence pairs or the number of point-above-line pairs in O(n^{4/3}) time, which matches the conjectured lower bound and improves the best previous time bound of n^{4/3}2^{O(log^*n)} obtained almost 30 years ago by Matou�ek.
We describe two interesting and different ways to achieve the result: the first is randomized and uses a new 2D version of fractional cascading for arrangements of lines; the second is deterministic and uses decision trees in a manner inspired by the sorting technique of Fredman (1976). The second approach extends to any constant dimension.
Many consequences follow from these new ideas: for example, we obtain an O(n^{4/3})-time algorithm for line segment intersection counting in the plane, O(n^{4/3})-time randomized algorithms for bichromatic closest pair and Euclidean minimum spanning tree in three or four dimensions, and a randomized data structure for halfplane range counting in the plane with O(n^{4/3}) preprocessing time and space and O(n^{1/3}) query time.
We describe a fully dynamic linear-space data structure for point location in connected planar subdivisions, or more generally vertical ray shooting among non-intersecting line segments, that supports queries in O(log n (loglog n)^2) time and updates in O(log n loglog n) time. This is the first data structure that achieves close to logarithmic query and update time simultaneously, ignoring loglog n factors. We further show how to reduce the query time to O(log n loglog n) in the RAM model with randomization. Alternatively, the query time can be lowered to O(log n) if the update time is increased to O(log^{1+eps}n) for any constant eps>0, or vice versa.
We present a collection of new results on problems related to 3SUM, including:
We present a new combinatorial algorithm for Boolean matrix multiplication that runs in O(n^3 (loglog n)^3 / log^3 n) time. This improves the previous combinatorial algorithm by Bansal and Williams [FOCS'09] that runs in O(n^3 (loglog n)^2 / log^{9/4} n) time. Whereas Bansal and Williams' algorithm uses regularity lemmas for graphs, the new algorithm is simple and uses entirely elementary techniques: table lookup, word operations, plus a deceptively straightforward divide-and-conquer.
Our algorithm is in part inspired by a recent result of Impagliazzo, Lovett, Paturi, and Schneider (2014) on a different geometric problem, offline dominance range reporting; we improve their analysis for that problem as well.
We present a new algorithm for a classic problem in computational geometry, Klee's measure problem: given a set of n axis-parallel boxes in d-dimensional space, compute the volume of the union of the boxes. The algorithm runs in O(n^{d/2}) time for any constant d >= 3. Although it improves the previous best algorithm by "just" an iterated logarithmic factor, the real surprise lies in the simplicity of the new algorithm.
We also show that it is theoretically possible to beat the O(n^{d/2}) time bound by logarithmic factors for integer input in the word RAM model, and for other variants of the problem.
With additional work, we obtain an O(n^{d/3} polylog n)-time algorithm for the important special case of orthants or unit hypercubes (which include the so-called "hypervolume indicator problem"), and an O(n^{(d+1)/3} polylog n)-time algorithm for the case of arbitrary hypercubes or fat boxes, improving a previous O(n^{(d+2)/3})-time algorithm by Bringmann.
We present a number of new results on one of the most extensively studied topics in computational geometry, orthogonal range searching. All our results are in the standard word RAM model:
The most recent previous development on (a) was reported back in SoCG'95 by Gupta, Janardan, Smid, and Dasgupta, whose main result was an O([n lg n + k] lglg n) algorithm. The best previous result on (b) was an O(n lg n lglg n) algorithm due to Gabow, Bentley, and Tarjan---from STOC'84! As a consequence, we also obtain the current-record time bound for the maxima problem in all constant dimensions above 4.
We answer a basic data structuring question (for example, raised by Dietz and Raman back in SODA 1991): can van Emde Boas trees be made persistent, without changing their asymptotic query/update time? We present a (partially) persistent data structure that supports predecessor search in a set of integers in {1,...,U} under an arbitrary sequence of n insertions and deletions, with O(loglog U) expected query time and expected amortized update time, and O(n) space. The query bound is optimal in U for linear-space structures and improves previous near-O((loglog U)^2) methods.
The same method solves a fundamental problem from computational geometry: point location in orthogonal planar subdivisions (where edges are vertical or horizontal). We obtain the first static data structure achieving O(loglog U) worst-case query time and linear space. This result is again optimal in U for linear-space structures and improves the previous O((loglog U)^2) method by de Berg, Snoeyink, and van Kreveld (1992). The same result also holds for higher-dimensional subdivisions that are orthogonal binary space partitions, and for certain nonorthogonal planar subdivisions such as triangulations without small angles. Many geometric applications follow, including improved query times for orthogonal range reporting for dimensions >= 3 on the RAM.
Our key technique is an interesting new van-Emde-Boas-style recursion that alternates between two strategies, both quite simple.
We revisit one of the most fundamental classes of data structure problems in computational geometry: range searching. Back in SoCG'92, Matousek gave a partition tree method for d-dimensional simplex range searching achieving O(n) space and O(n^{1-1/d}) query time. Although this method is generally believed to be optimal, it is complicated and requires O(n^{1+eps}) preprocessing time for any fixed eps > 0. An earlier method by Matousek (SoCG'91) requires O(n log n) preprocessing time but O(n^{1-1/d} polylog n) query time. We give a new method that achieves simultaneously O(n log n) preprocessing time, O(n) space, and O(n^{1-1/d}) query time with high probability. Our method has several advantages:
We give an O(n sqrt{lg n})-time algorithm for counting the number of inversions in a permutation on n elements. This improves a long-standing previous bound of O(n lg n/lg lg n) that followed from Dietz's data structure [WADS'89], and answers a question of Andersson and Petersson [SODA'95]. As Dietz's result is known to be optimal for the related dynamic rank problem, our result demonstrates a significant improvement in the offline setting. Our new technique is quite simple: we perform a "vertical partitioning" of a trie (akin to van Emde Boas trees), and use ideas from external memory. However, the technique finds numerous applications: for example, we obtain
As a bonus, we also give a simple (1+epsilon)-approximation algorithm for counting inversions that runs in linear time, improving the previous O(n lg lg n) bound by Andersson and Petersson.
We prove the existence of an algorithm A for computing 2-d or 3-d convex hulls that is optimal for every point set in the following sense: for every set S of n points and for every algorithm A' in a certain class C, the maximum running time of A on input s_1,...,s_n is at most a constant factor times the maximum running time of A' on s_1,...,s_n, where the maximum is taken over all permutations s_1,...,s_n of S. In fact, we can establish a stronger property: for every S and A', the maximum running time of A is at most a constant factor times the average running time of A' over all permutations of S. We call algorithms satisfying these properties instance-optimal in the order-oblivious and random-order setting. Such instance-optimal algorithms simultaneously subsume output-sensitive algorithms and distribution-dependent average-case algorithms, and all algorithms that do not take advantage of the order of the input or that assume the input is given in a random order.
The class C under consideration consists of all algorithms in a decision tree model where the tests involve only multilinear functions with a constant number of arguments. To establish an instance-specific lower bound, we deviate from traditional Ben-Or-style proofs and adopt an interesting adversary argument. For 2-d convex hulls, we prove that a version of the well known algorithm by Kirkpatrick and Seidel (1986) or Chan, Snoeyink, and Yap (1995) already attains this lower bound. For 3-d convex hulls, we propose a new algorithm.
To demonstrate the potential of the concept, we further obtain instance-optimal results for a few other standard problems in computational geometry, such as maxima in 2-d and 3-d, orthogonal line segment intersection in 2-d, finding bichromatic L_infty-close pairs in 2-d, off-line orthogonal range searching in 2-d, off-line dominance reporting in 2-d and 3-d, off-line halfspace range reporting in 2-d and 3-d, and off-line point location in 2-d.
We reexamine fundamental problems from computational geometry in the word RAM model, where input coordinates are integers that fit in a machine word. We develop a new algorithm for offline point location, a two-dimensional analog of sorting where one needs to order points with respect to segments. This result implies, for example, that the Voronoi diagram of n points in the plane can be constructed in (randomized) time n . 2^{O(\sqrt{lg lg n})}. Similar bounds hold for numerous other geometric problems, such as three-dimensional convex hulls, planar Euclidean minimum spanning trees, line segment intersection, and triangulation of non-simple polygons.
In FOCS'06, we developed a data structure for online point location, which implied a bound of O(n lg n / lg lg n) for Voronoi diagrams and the other problems. Our current bounds are dramatically better, and a convincing improvement over the classic O(n lg n) algorithms. As in the field of integer sorting, the main challenge is to find ways to manipulate information, while avoiding the online problem (in that case, predecessor search).
In the first part of the paper, we reexamine the all-pairs shortest paths (APSP) problem and present a new algorithm with running time approaching O(n^3 log^3log n / log^2 n), which improves all known algorithms for general real-weighted dense graphs.
In the second part of the paper, we use fast matrix multiplication to obtain truly subcubic APSP algorithms for a large class of "geometrically weighted" graphs, where the weight of an edge is a function of the coordinates of its vertices. For example, for graphs embedded in Euclidean space of a constant dimension d, we obtain a time bound near O(n^{3-(3-w)/(2d+4)}), where w < 2.376; in two dimensions, this is O(n^{2.922}). Our framework greatly extends the previously considered case of small-integer-weighted graphs, and incidentally also yields the first truly subcubic result (near O(n^{3-(3-w)/4}) = O(n^{2.844}) time) for APSP in real-vertex-weighted graphs, as well as an improved result (near O(n^{(3+w)/2}) = O(n^{2.688}) time) for the all-pairs lightest shortest path problem for small-integer-weighted graphs.
Given a planar subdivision whose coordinates are integers bounded by U <= 2^w, we present a linear-space data structure that can answer point location queries in O(min{ lg n/lglg n, sqrt{lg U/lglg U} }) time on the unit-cost RAM with word size w. This is the first result to beat the standard Theta(lg n) bound for infinite precision models.
As a consequence, we obtain the first o(n lg n) (randomized) algorithms for many fundamental problems in computational geometry for arbitrary integer input on the word RAM, including: constructing the convex hull of a three-dimensional point set, computing the Voronoi diagram or the Euclidean minimum spanning tree of a planar point set, triangulating a polygon with holes, and finding intersections among a set of line segments. Higher-dimensional extensions and applications are also discussed.
Though computational geometry with bounded precision input has been investigated for a long time, improvements have been limited largely to problems of an orthogonal flavor. Our results surpass this long-standing limitation, answering, for example, a question of Willard (SODA'92).
We consider the standard problem of approximate nearest neighbor search, for a given set of n points with integer coordinates in a constant-dimensional Euclidean space. We describe a simple implementation of a randomized algorithm that guarantees O(log n) expected query time and O(n log n) preprocessing time. The entire C++ code is under 100 lines long and requires no extra space other than the input array. The algorithm can easily be made dynamic as well.
We present a fully dynamic randomized data structure that can answer queries about the convex hull of a set of n points in three dimensions, where insertions take O(log^3 n) expected amortized time, deletions take O(log^6 n) expected amortized time, and extreme-point queries take O(log^2 n) worst-case time. This is the first method that guarantees polylogarithmic update and query cost for arbitrary sequences of insertions and deletions, and improves the previous O(n^epsilon)-time method by Agarwal and Matousek a decade ago. As a consequence, we obtain similar results for nearest neighbor queries in two dimensions and improved results for numerous fundamental geometric problems (such as levels in three dimensions and dynamic Euclidean minimum spanning trees in the plane).
We describe an O(n^3 / log n)-time algorithm for the all-pairs-shortest-paths problem for a real-weighted directed graph with n vertices. This slightly improves a series of previous, slightly subcubic algorithms by Fredman (1976), Takaoka (1992), Dobosiewicz (1990), Han (2004), Takaoka (2004), and Zwick (2004). The new algorithm is surprisingly simple and different from previous ones.
We speed up previous (1+epsilon)-factor approximation algorithms for a number of geometric optimization problems in fixed dimensions: diameter, width, minimum-radius enclosing cylinder, minimum-width annulus, minimum-volume bounding box, minimum-width cylindrical shell, etc. Linear time bounds were known before; we further improve the dependence of the "constants" in terms of epsilon.
We next consider the data stream model and present new (1+epsilon)-factor approximation algorithms that need only constant space for all of the above problems in any fixed dimension. Previously, such a result was known only for diameter.
Both sets of results are obtained using the core-set framework recently proposed by Agarwal, Har-Peled, and Varadarajan.
We give a surprisingly short proof that in any planar arrangement of n curves where each pair intersects at most a fixed number (s) of times, the k-level has subquadratic (O(n^{2-1/2s})) complexity. This answers one of the main open problems from the author's previous paper (FOCS'00), which provided a weaker bound for a restricted class of curves only (graphs of degree-s polynomials). When combined with existing tools (cutting curves, sampling, etc.), the new idea generates a slew of improved k-level results for most of the curve families studied earlier, including a near-O(n^{3/2}) bound for parabolas.
In this paper, we give an algorithm for output-sensitive construction of an f-face convex hull of a set of n points in general position in E^4. Our algorithm runs in O((n+f) log^2 f) time and uses O(n+f) space. This is the first algorithm within a polylogarithmic factor of optimal O(n log f + f) time over the whole range of f. By a standard lifting map, we obtain output-sensitive algorithms for the Voronoi diagram or Delaunay triangulation in E^3 and for the portion of a Voronoi diagram that is clipped to a convex polytope. Our approach simplifies the "ultimate convex hull algorithm" of Kirkpatrick and Seidel in E^2 and also leads to improved output-sensitive results on constructing convex hulls in E^d for any even constant d > 4.
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