We survey recent and not so recent results related to the computation of exact and approximate distances, and corresponding shortest, or almost shortest, paths in graphs. We consider many different settings and models and try to identify some remaining open problems.

We consider static dictionaries over the universe U = on a unit-cost RAM with word size w. Construction of a static dictionary with linear space consumption and constant lookup time can be done in linear expected time by a randomized algorithm. In contrast, the best previous deterministic algorithm for constructing such a dictionary with n elements runs in time O(n ) for # > 0. This paper narrows the gap between deterministic and randomized algorithms exponentially, from the factor of to an O(log n) factor. The algorithm is weakly non-uniform, i.e. requires certain precomputed constants dependent on w. A by-product of the result is a lookup time vs insertion time trade-o# for dynamic dictionaries, which is optimal for a certain class of deterministic hashing schemes.

Abstract. We present a new scheme for computing shortest paths on real-weighted undirected graphs in the fundamental comparison-addition model. In an efficient preprocessing phase our algorithm creates a linear-size structure that facilitates single-source shortest path computations in O(m log α) time, where α = α(m, n) is the very slowly growing inverse-Ackermann function, m the number of edges, and n the number of vertices. As special cases our algorithm implies new bounds on both the all-pairs and single-source shortest paths problems. We solve the all-pairs problem in O(mnlog α(m, n)) time and, if the ratio between the maximum and minimum edge lengths is bounded by n (log n)O(1) , we can solve the single-source problem in O(m + nlog log n) time. Both these results are theoretical improvements over Dijkstra’s algorithm, which was the previous best for real weighted undirected graphs. Our algorithm takes the hierarchy-based approach invented by Thorup. Key words. single-source shortest paths, all-pairs shortest paths, undirected graphs, Dijkstra’s

We develop lower bounds on the number of primitive operations required to solve several fundamental problems in computational geometry. For example, given a set of points in the plane, are any three colinear? Given a set of points and lines, does any point lie on a line? These and similar questions arise as subproblems or special cases of a large number of more complicated geometric problems, including point location, range searching, motion planning, collision detection, ray shooting, and hidden surface removal. Previously these problems were studied only in general models of computation, but known techniques for these models are too weak to prove useful results. Our approach is to consider, for each problem, a more specialized model of computation that is still rich enough to describe all known algorit...

this paper appeared in Proc. 16th Annual Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1563 (1999) pp. 362--372.

We show that any priority queue data structure that supports insert, delete, and find-min operations in pq(n) time, when n is an upper bound on the number of elements in the priority queue, can be converted into a priority queue data structure that also supports fast meld operations with essentially no increase in the amortized cost of the other operations. More specifically, the new data structure supports insert, meld and find-min operations in O(1) amortized time, and delete operations in O(pq(n) + α(n, n)) amortized time, where α(m, n) is a functional inverse of the Ackermann function. The construction is very simple, essentially just placing a non-meldable priority queue at each node of a union-find data structure. We also show that when all keys are integers in the range [1, N], we can replace n in the bound stated above by min{n, N}. Applying this result to non-meldable priority queue data structures obtained recently by Thorup, and by Han and Thorup, we obtain meldable RAM priority queues with O(log log n) amortized cost per operation, or O ( √ log log n) expected amortized cost per operation, respectively. As a by-product, we obtain improved algorithms for the minimum directed spanning tree problem in graphs with integer edge weights: A deterministic O(m log log n) time algorithm and a randomized O(m √ log log n) time algorithm. These bounds improve, for sparse enough graphs, on the O(m + n log n) running time of an algorithm by Gabow, Galil, Spencer and Tarjan that works for arbitrary edge weights.

. We consider dictionaries over the universe U = f0; 1g w on a unit-cost RAM with word size w and a standard instruction set. We present a linear space deterministic dictionary with membership queries in time (log log n) O(1) and updates in time (log n) O(1) , where n is the size of the set stored. This is the rst such data structure to simultaneously achieve query time (log n) o(1) and update time O(2 (log n) c ) for a constant c < 1. 1 Introduction Among the most fundamental data structures is the dictionary. A dictionary stores a subset S of a universe U , oering membership queries of the form \x 2 S?". The result of a membership query is either 'no' or a piece of satellite data associated with x. Updates of the set are supported via insertion and deletion of single elements. Several performance measures are of interest for dictionaries: The amount of space used, the time needed to answer queries, and the time needed to perform updates. The most ecient dictionar...

We introduce the notion of discrimination as a generalization of both sorting and partitioning and show that worst-case linear-time discrimination functions (discriminators) can be defined generically, by (co-)induction on an expressive language of order denotations. The generic definition yields discriminators that generalize both distributive sorting and multiset discrimination. The generic discriminator can be coded compactly using list comprehensions, with order denotations specified using Generalized Algebraic Data Types (GADTs). A GADT-free combinator formulation of discriminators is also given. We give some examples of the uses of discriminators, including a new most-significant-digit lexicographic sorting algorithm. Discriminators generalize binary comparison functions: They operate on n arguments at a time, but do not expose more information than the underlying equivalence, respectively ordering relation on the arguments. We argue that primitive types with equality (such as references in ML) and ordered types (such as the machine integer type), should expose their equality, respectively standard ordering relation, as discriminators: Having only a binary equality test on a type requires Θ(n 2) time to find all the occurrences of an element in a list of length n, for each element in the list, even if the equality test takes only constant time. A discriminator accomplishes this in linear time. Likewise, having only a (constant-time) comparison function requires Θ(n log n) time to sort a list of n elements. A discriminator can do this in linear time.