Abstract. Let G =(V,E) be a plane triangulated graph where each vertex is assigned a positive weight. A rectilinear dual of G is a partition of a rectangle into |V | simple rectilinear regions, one for each vertex, such that two regions are adjacent if and only if the corresponding vertices are connected by an edge in E. A rectilinear dual is called a cartogram if the area of each region is equal to the weight of the corresponding vertex. We show that every vertex-weighted plane triangulated graph G admits a cartogram of constant complexity, that is, a cartogram where the number of vertices of each region is constant. 1

Abstract. We introduce and study orderly spanning trees of plane graphs. This algorithmic tool generalizes canonical orderings, which exist only for triconnected plane graphs. Although not every plane graph admits an orderly spanning tree, we provide an algorithm to compute an orderly pair for any connected planar graph G, consisting of an embedded planar graph H isomorphic to G, and an orderly spanning tree of H. We also present several applications of orderly spanning trees: (1) a new constructive proof for Schnyder’s realizer theorem, (2) the first algorithm for computing an area-optimal 2-visibility drawing of a planar graph, and (3) the most compact known encoding of a planar graph with O(1)-time query support. All algorithms in this paper run in linear time.

Abstract. In this paper, we consider the problem of representing graphs by polygons whose sides touch. We show that at least six sides per polygon are necessary by constructing a class of planar graphs that cannot be represented by pentagons. We also show that the lower bound of six sides is matched by an upper bound of six sides with a linear time algorithm for representing any planar graph by touching hexagons. Moreover, our algorithm produces convex polygons with edges with slopes 0, 1,-1. 1

Information visualization is essential in making sense out of large data sets. Often, high-dimensional data are visualized as a collection of points in 2-dimensional space through dimensionality reduction techniques. However, these traditional methods often do not capture well the underlying structural information, clustering, and neighborhoods. In this paper, we describe GMap, a practical tool for visualizing relational data with geographic-like maps. We illustrate the effectiveness of this approach with examples from several domains. All the maps referenced in this paper can be found in www.research.att.com/˜yifanhu/GMap.

Abstract. In this paper, we consider the problem of representing graphs by triangles whose sides touch. We present linear time algorithms for creating touching triangles representations for outerplanar graphs, square grid graphs, and hexagonal grid graphs. The class of graphs with touching triangles representations is not closed under minors, making characterization difficult. We do show that pairs of vertices can only have a small common neighborhood, and we present a complete characterization of the subclass of biconnected graphs that can be represented as triangulations of some polygon.

In a rectilinear dual of a planar graph vertices are represented by simple rectilinear polygons and edges are represented by side-contact between the corresponding polygons. A rectilinear dual is called a cartogram if the area of each region is equal to a pre-specified weight of the corresponding vertex. The complexity of a cartogram is determined by the maximum number of corners (or sides) required for any polygon. In a series of papers the polygonal complexity of such representations for maximal planar graphs has been reduced from the initial 40 to 34, then to 12 and very recently to the currently best known 10. Here we describe a construction with 8-sided polygons, which is optimal in terms of polygonal complexity as 8-sided polygons are sometimes necessary. Specifically, we show how to compute the combinatorial structure and how to refine the representation into an area-universal rectangular layout in linear time. The exact cartogram can be computed from the area-universal rectangular layout with numerical iteration, or can be approximated with a hill-climbing heuristic. We also describe an alternative construction for Hamiltonian maximal planar graphs, which allows us to directly compute the cartograms in linear time. Moreover, we prove that even for Hamiltonian graphs 8-sided rectilinear polygons are necessary, by constructing a non-trivial lower bound example. The complexity of the cartograms can be reduced to 6 if the Hamiltonian path has the extra property that it is one-legged, as in outer-planar graphs. Thus, we have optimal representations (in terms of both polygonal complexity and running time) for Hamiltonian maximal planar and maximal outer-planar graphs.

Abstract. In a proportional contact representation of a planar graph, each vertex is represented by a simple polygon with area proportional to a given weight, and edges are represented by adjacencies between the corresponding pairs of polygons. In this paper we study proportional contact representations that use rectilinear polygons without wasted areas (white space). In this setting, the best known algorithm for proportional contact representation of a maximal planar graph uses 12-sided rectilinear polygons and takes�time. We describe a new algorithm that guarantees 10-sided rectilinear polygons and runs in time. We also describe a linear-time algorithm for proportional contact representation of planar 3-trees with 8-sided rectilinear polygons and show that this optimal, as there exist planar 3-trees that requires 8-sided polygons. Finally, we show that a maximal outer-planar graph admits a proportional contact representation with 6-sided rectilinear polygons when the outer-boundary is a rectangle and with 4 sides otherwise. 1

Three types of geometric structure—grid triangulations, rectangular subdivisions, and orthogonal polyhedra— can each be described combinatorially by a regular labeling: an assignment of colors and orientations to the edges of an associated maximal or near-maximal planar graph. We briefly survey the connections and analogies between these three kinds of labelings, and their uses in designing efficient geometric algorithms.

In the first part of this survey we consider planar graphs that can be represented by a dissections of a rectangle into rectangles. In rectangular drawings the corners of the rectangles represent the vertices. The graph obtained by taking the rectangles as vertices and contacts as edges is the rectangular dual. In visibility graphs and segment contact graphs the vertices correspond to horizontal or to horizontal and vertical segments of the dissection. Special orientations of graphs turn out to be helpful when dealing with characterization and representation questions. Therefore, we look at orientations with prescribed degrees, bipolar orientations, separating decompositions, and transversal structures. In the second part we ask for representations by a dissections of a rectangle into squares. We

Abstract. A proportional contact representation of a planar graph is one where each vertex is represented by a simple polygon with area proportional to a given weight and adjacencies between polygons represent edges between the corresponding pairs of vertices. In this paper we study proportional contact representations that use only rectilinear polygons and contain no unused area or hole. There is an algorithm that gives a hole-free proportional contact representation of a maximal planar graph with 12-sided rectilinear polygons in O(n log n) time. We improve this result by giving a linear-time algorithm that produces a hole-free proportional contact representation of a maximal planar graph with a 10-sided rectilinear polygons. For a planar 3-tree we give a linear-time algorithm for a hole-free proportional contact representation with 8-sided rectilinear polygons. Furthermore, there exist a planar 3-tree that requires 8-sided polygons in any hole-free contact representation with rectilinear polygons. A maximal outerplanar graph admits a hole-free proportional contact representation with rectangles. 1