An (n; s) Davenport-Schinzel sequence, for positive integers n and s, is a sequence composed of n distinct symbols with the properties that no two adjacent elements are equal, and that it does not contain, as a (possibly non-contiguous) subsequence, any alternation a \Delta \Delta \Delta b \Delta \Delta \Delta a \Delta \Delta \Delta b \Delta \Delta \Delta of length s + 2 between two distinct symbols a and b. The close relationship between Davenport-Schinzel sequences and the combinatorial structure of lower envelopes of collections of functions make the sequences very attractive because a variety of geometric problems can be formulated in terms of lower envelopes. A near-linear bound on the maximum length of Davenport-Schinzel sequences enable us to derive sharp bounds on the combinatorial structure underlying various geometric problems, which in turn yields efficient algorithms for these problems.

We survey the computational geometry relevant to finite element mesh generation. We especially focus on optimal triangulations of geometric domains in two- and three-dimensions. An optimal triangulation is a partition of the domain into triangles or tetrahedra, that is best according to some criterion that measures the size, shape, or number of triangles. We discuss algorithms both for the optimization of triangulations on a fixed set of vertices and for the placement of new vertices (Steiner points). We briefly survey the heuristic algorithms used in some practical mesh generators.

We review the recent progress in the design of efficient algorithms for various problems in geometric optimization. We present several techniques used to attack these problems, such as parametric searching, geometric alternatives to parametric searching, prune-and-search techniques for linear programming and related problems, and LPtype problems and their efficient solution. We then describe a variety of applications of these and other techniques to numerous problems in geometric optimization, including facility location, proximity problems, statistical estimators and metrology, placement and intersection of polygons and polyhedra, and ray shooting and other query-type problems.

Delaunay refinement is a technique for generating unstructured meshes of triangles for use in interpolation, the finite element method, and the finite volume method. In theory and practice, meshes produced by Delaunay refinement satisfy guaranteed bounds on angles, edge lengths, the number of triangles, and the grading of triangles from small to large sizes. This article presents an intuitive framework for analyzing Delaunay refinement algorithms that unifies the pioneering mesh generation algorithms of L. Paul Chew and Jim Ruppert, improves the algorithms in several minor ways, and most importantly, helps to solve the difficult problem of meshing nonmanifold domains with small angles.

This is the preliminary version of a chapter that will appear in the Handbook on Computational Geometry, edited by J.-R. Sack and J. Urrutia. A comprehensive overview is given of algorithms and data structures for proximity problems on point sets in IR D . In particular, the closest pair problem, the exact and approximate post-office problem, and the problem of constructing spanners are discussed in detail. Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 The static closest pair problem 4 2.1 Preliminary remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.2 Algorithms that are optimal in the algebraic computation tree model . 5 2.2.1 An algorithm based on the Voronoi diagram . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2.2 A divide-and-conquer algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2.3 A plane sweep algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.3 A deterministic algorithm that uses indirect addressing . . . . . . . . . 7 2.3.1 The degraded grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...

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...

The Delaunay Tree is a hierarchical data structure that has been introduced in [6] and analyzed in [7,4]. For a given set of sites S in the plane and an order of insertion for these sites, the Delaunay Tree stores all the successive Delaunay triangulations. As proved before, the Delaunay Tree allows the insertion of a site in logarithmic expected time and linear expected space, when the insertion sequence is randomized.

We describe the first known algorithm for efficiently maintaining a Binary Space Partition (BSP) for n continuously moving segments in the plane. Under reasonable assumptions on the motion, we show that the total number of times the BSP changes is O(n 2 ), and that we can update the BSP in O(log n) expected time per change. We also consider the problem of constructing a BSP for n triangles in R 3 . We present a randomized algorithm that constructs a BSP of expected size O(n 2 ) in O(n 2 log 2 n) expected time. We also describe a deterministic algorithm that constructs a BSP of size O((n + k) log n) and height O(log n) in O((n + k) log 2 n) time, where k is the number of intersection points between the edges of the projections of the triangles onto the xy-plane. 1 Introduction The Binary Space Partition (BSP, also known as BSP tree), originally proposed by Schumacker et al. [26] and further refined by Fuchs et al. [16], is a hierarchical partitioning of space widely used i...

We study the problem of robustly rounding a set S of n line segments in R 2 using the snap rounding paradigm. In this paradigm each pixel containing an endpoint or intersection point is called "hot," and all segments intersecting a hot pixel are re-routed to pass through its center. We show that a snap-rounded approximation to the arrangement defined by S can be built in an output-sensitive fashion, and that this can be done without first determining all the intersecting pairs of segments in S. Specifically, we give a deterministic plane-sweep algorithm running in time O(n log n + P h2H jhj log n), where H is the set of hot pixels and jhj is the number of segments intersecting a hot pixel h 2 H. We also give a simple randomized incremental construction whose expected running time matches that of our deterministic algorithm. The complexity of these algorithms is optimal up to polylogarithmic factors. This research is supported by NSF grant CCR9625289 and by U.S. ARO grant DAAH04-...

We introduce a new type of randomized incremental algorithms. Contrary to standard randomized incremental algorithms, these lazy randomized incremental algorithms are suited for computing structures that have a `non-local' definition. In order to analyze these algorithms we generalize some results on random sampling to such situations. We apply our techniques to obtain efficient algorithms for the computation of single cells in arrangements of segments in the plane, single cells in arrangements of triangles in space, and zones in arrangements of hyperplanes. We also prove combinatorial bounds on the complexity of what we call the (6k)-cell in arrangements of segments in the plane or triangles in space; this is the set of all points on the segments (triangles) that can reach the origin with a path that crosses at most k, 1 segments (triangles).