... process a set S of points in so that the points of S lying inside a query R region can be reported or counted quickly. Wesurvey the known techniques and data structures for range searching and describe their application to other related searching problems.

Abstract. Let P be a set of n points in ~d (where d is a small fixed positive integer), and let F be a collection of subsets of ~d, each of which is defined by a constant number of bounded degree polynomial inequalities. We consider the following F-range searching problem: Given P, build a data structure for efficient answering of queries of the form, &quot;Given a 7 ~ F, count (or report) the points of P lying in 7.&quot; Generalizing the simplex range searching techniques, we give a solution with nearly linear space and preprocessing time and with O(n 1- x/b+~) query time, where d < b < 2d- 3 and ~> 0 is an arbitrarily small constant. The acutal value of b is related to the problem of partitioning arrangements of algebraic surfaces into cells with a constant description complexity. We present some of the applications of F-range searching problem, including improved ray shooting among triangles in ~3 1.

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Let P be a set of n points in R d (where d is a small fixed positive integer), and let \Gamma be a collection of subsets of R d , each of which is defined by a constant number of bounded degree polynomials. We consider the following \Gamma-range searching problem: Given P , build a data structure for efficient answering of queries of the form `Given a fl 2 \Gamma, count (or report) the points of P lying in fl'. Generalizing the simplex range searching techniques, we give a solution with nearly linear space and preprocessing time and with O(n 1\Gamma1=b+ffi ) query time, where d b 2d \Gamma 3 and ffi ? 0 is an arbitrarily small constant. The actual value of b is related to the problem of partitioning arrangements of algebraic surfaces into constant-complexity cells. We present some of the applications of \Gamma-range searching problem, including improved ray shooting among triangles in R³.

The arrangement of a finite collection of geometric objects is the decomposition of the space into connected cells induced by them. We survey combinatorial and algorithmic properties of arrangements of arcs in the plane and of surface patches in higher dimensions. We present many applications of arrangements to problems in motion planning, visualization, range searching, molecular modeling, and geometric optimization. Some results involving planar arrangements of arcs have been presented in a companion chapter in this book, and are extended in this chapter to higher dimensions. Work by P.A. was supported by Army Research Office MURI grant DAAH04-96-1-0013, by a Sloan fellowship, by an NYI award, and by a grant from the U.S.-Israeli Binational Science Foundation. Work by M.S. was supported by NSF Grants CCR-91-22103 and CCR-93-11127, by a Max-Planck Research Award, and by grants from the U.S.-Israeli Binational Science Foundation, the Israel Science Fund administered by the Israeli Ac...

Range searching is one of the central problems in computational geometry, because it arises in many applications and a wide variety of geometric problems can be formulated as a range-searching problem. A typical range-searching problem has the following form. Let S be a set of n points in R d , and let R be a family of subsets; elements of R are called ranges . We wish to preprocess S into a data structure so that for a query range R, the points in S " R can be reported or counted efficiently. Typical examples of ranges include rectangles, halfspaces, simplices, and balls. If we are only interested in answering a single query, it can be done in linear time, using linear space, by simply checking for each point p 2 S whether p lies in the query range.

Weintroduce a new method for finding several types of optimal k-point sets, minimizing perimeter, diameter, circumradius, and related measures, by testing sets of the O(k) nearest neighbors to each point. We argue that this is better in a number of ways than previous algorithms, whichwere based on high order Voronoi diagrams. Our technique allows us for the first time to efficiently maintain minimal sets as new points are inserted, to generalize our algorithms to higher dimensions, to find minimal convex k-vertex polygons and polytopes, and to improvemany previous results. Weachievemany of our results via a new algorithm for finding rectilinear nearest neighbors in the plane in time O(n log n+kn). We also demonstrate a related technique for finding minimum area k-point sets in the plane, based on testing sets of nearest vertical neighbors to each line segment determined by a pair of points. A generalization of this technique also allows us to find minimum volume and boundary measure sets in arbitrary dimensions.

In geometric range searching, algorithmic problems of the following type are considered: Given an n-point set P in the plane, build a data structure so that, given a query triangle R, the number of points of P lying in R can be determined quickly. Problems of this type are of crucial importance in computational geometry, as they can be used as subroutines in many seemingly unrelated algorithms. We present a survey of results and main techniques in this area.

Let F be a collection of n bivariate algebraic functions of constant maximum degree. We show that the combinatorial complexity of the vertical decomposition of the k-level of the arrangement A(F) is O(k 3+" /(n=k)), for any " ? 0, where /(r) is the maximum complexity of the lower envelope of a subset of at most r functions of F . This bound is nearly optimal in the worst case, and implies the existence of shallow cuttings, in the sense of [51], of small size in arrangements of bivariate algebraic functions. We also present numerous applications of these results, including: (i) data structures for several generalized three-dimensional range searching problems; (ii) dynamic data structures for planar nearest and farthest neighbor searching under various fairly general distance functions; (iii) an improved (near-quadratic) algorithm for minimum-weight bipartite Euclidean matching in the plane; and (iv) efficient algorithms for certain geometric optimization problems in static...

We present a new approach to problems in geometric optimization that are traditionally solved using the parametric searching technique of Megiddo [34]. Our new approach