High-performance rendering engines in computer graphics are often pipelined, and their speed is bounded by the rate at which triangulation data can be sent into the machine. To reduce the data rate, it is desirable to order the triangles so that consecutive triangles share a face, meaning that only one additional vertex need be transmitted to describe each triangle. Such an ordering exists if and only if the dual graph of the triangulation contains a Hamiltonian path. In this paper, we consider several problems concerning triangulations with Hamiltonian duals. Specifically, we ffl Show that any set of n points in the plane has a Hamiltonian triangulation, and give two optimal \Theta(n log n) algorithms for constructing such a triangulation. We have implemented and tested both algorithms. ffl Consider the special case of sequential triangulations, where the Hamiltonian cycle is implied, and prove that certain non-degenerate point sets in the plane do not admit a sequential triangulati...

We give a data structure that allows arbitrary insertions and deletions on a planar point set P and supports basic queries on the convex hull of P , such as membership and tangent-finding. Updates take O(log 1+" n) amortized time and queries take O(log n) time each, where n is the maximum size of P and " is any fixed positive constant. For some advanced queries such as bridge-finding, both our bounds increase to O(log 3=2 n). The only previous fully dynamic solution was by Overmars and van Leeuwen from 1981 and required O(log 2 n) time per update. 1 Introduction Although the algorithmic study of convex hulls is as old as computational geometry itself, the basic problem of optimally maintaining the planar convex hull under insertions and deletions of points [30, 34] remains unsolved and has been regarded by some as one of the foremost open problems in the area [14, 26]. Besides its natural appeal, such a dynamic data structure has a wide range of applications, as it is often us...

Given n points in three dimensions, we show how to answer halfspace range reporting queries in O(logn+k) expected time for an output size k. Our data structure can be preprocessed in optimal O(n log n) expected time. We apply this result to obtain the first optimal randomized algorithm for the construction of the ( k)-level in an arrangement of n planes in three dimensions. The algorithm runs in O(n log n+nk²) expected time. Our techniques are based on random sampling. Applications in two dimensions include an improved data structure for "k nearest neighbors" queries, and an algorithm that constructs the order-k Voronoi diagram in O(n log n + nk log k) expected time.

Given an n-vertex outer-planar graph G and a set P of n points in the plane, we present an O(n log n) time and O(n) space algorithm to compute a straight-line embedding of G in P , improving upon the algorithm in [GMPP91, CU96] that requires O(n ) time. Our algorithm is near-optimal as there is an\Omega (n log n) lower bound for the problem [BMS95]. We present a simpler O(nd) time and O(n) space algorithm to compute a straight-line embedding of G in P where log n d 2n is the length of the longest vertex disjoint path in the dual of G. Therefore, the time complexity of the simpler algorithm varies between O(n log n) and O(n ) depending on the value of d. More efficient algorithms are presented for certain restricted cases. If the dual of G is a path, then an optimal \Theta(n log n) time algorithm is presented. If the given point set is in convex position then we show that O(n) time suffices.

∗ Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. This dissertation presents two topics from opposite disciplines: one is from a parametric realm and the other is based on nonparametric methods. The first topic is a jackknife maximum likelihood approach to statistical model selection and the second one is a convex hull peeling depth approach to nonparametric massive multivariate data analysis. The second topic includes simulations and applications on massive astronomical data. First, we present a model selection criterion, minimizing the Kullback-Leibler distance by using the jackknife method. Various model selection methods have been developed to choose a model of minimum Kullback-Liebler distance to the true model, such as Akaike information criterion (AIC), Bayesian information criterion (BIC), Minimum description length (MDL), and Bootstrap information criterion. Likewise, the jackknife method chooses a model of minimum Kullback-Leibler distance through bias reduction. This bias, which is inevitable in model

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 ε)-time method by Agarwal and Matouˇsek 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). 1

We present optimal \Theta(n log n) time algorithms to solve two tree embedding problems whose solution previously took quadratic time or more: rooted tree embeddings and degree-constrained embeddings. In the rooted tree embedding problem we are given a rooted tree T with n nodes and a set of n points P with one designated point p and are asked to find a straight-line embedding of T into P with the root at point p. In the degree-constrained embedding problem we are given a set of n points P where each point is assigned a positive degree and the degrees sum to 2n \Gamma 2 and are asked to embed a tree in P that respects the degrees assigned to each point of P .

Given a set S of n points in the plane, a quadrangulation of S is a planar subdivision whose vertices are the points of S, whose outer face is the convex hull of S, and every face of the subdivision (except possibly the outer face) is a quadrilateral. We show that S admits a quadrangulation if and only if S does not have an odd number of extreme points. If S admits a quadrangulation, we present an algorithm that computes a quadrangulation of S in O(n log n) time even in the presence of collinear points. If S does not admit a quadrangulation, then our algorithm can quadrangulate S with the addition of one extra point, which is optimal. We also provide an\Omega (n log n) time lower bound for the problem. Finally, our results imply that a k-angulation of a set of points can be achieved with the addition of at most k \Gamma 3 extra points within the same time bound.

We consider the problem of enumerating triangulations of n points in the plane in general position. We introduce a tree of triangulations and present an algorithm for enumerating triangulations in O(log log n) time per triangulation. It improves the previous bound by almost linear factor. Keywords: Triangulations; Enumeration; Reverse Search 1

For a given set A ` (\Gamma; +] of angles, the problem "Angle-Restricted Tour" (ART) is to decide whether a set P of n points in the Euclidean plane allows a closed directed tour consisting of straight line segments, such that all angles between consecutive line segments are from the set A. We present a variety of algorithmic and combinatorial results on this problem. In particular, we show that any finite set of at least five points allows a "pseudoconvex" tour (i. e. a tour where all angles are nonnegative), and we derive a fast algorithm for constructing such a tour. Moreover, we give a complete classification (from the computational complexity point of view) for the special cases where the tour has to be part of the orthogonal grid.