Intersection Graphs Of Geometric Objects Research Articles

The Schur-Erdős problem for semi-algebraic colorings

We consider m-colorings of the edges of a complete graph, where each color class is defined semi-algebraically with bounded complexity. The case m = 2 was first studied by Alon et al., who applied this framework to obtain surprisingly strong Ramsey-type results for intersection graphs of geometric objects and for other graphs arising in computational geometry. Considering larger values of m is relevant, e.g., to problems concerning the number of distinct distances determined by a point set. For p ≥ 3 and m ≥ 2, the classical Ramsey number R(p; m) is the smallest positive integer n such that any m-coloring of the edges of Kn, the complete graph on n vertices, contains a monochromatic Kp. It is a longstanding open problem that goes back to Schur (1916) to decide whether R(p; m) ≤ 2cm, where c = c(p). We prove that this is true if each color class is defined semi-algebraically with bounded complexity, and that the order of magnitude of this bound is tight. Our proof is based on the Cutting Lemma of Chazelle et al., and on a Szemeredi-type regularity lemma for multicolored semi-algebraic graphs, which is of independent interest. The same technique is used to address the semi-algebraic variant of a more general Ramsey-type problem of Erdős and Shelah.

Conflict-Free Coloring of Intersection Graphs of Geometric Objects

In 2002, Even et al. introduced and studied the notion of conflict-free colorings of geometrically defined hypergraphs. They motivated it by frequency assignment problems in cellular networks. This notion has been extensively studied since then. A conflict-free coloring of a graph is a coloring of its vertices such that the neighborhood (pointed or closed) of each vertex contains a vertex whose color differs from the colors of all other vertices in that neighborhood. In this paper we study conflict-free colorings of intersection graphs of geometric objects. We show that any intersection graph of n pseudo-discs in the plane admits a conflict-free coloring with $$O(\log n)$$ colors, with respect to both closed and pointed neighborhoods. We also show that the latter bound is asymptotically sharp. Using our methods, we obtain the following strengthening of the two main results of Even et al.: Any family $$\mathcal {F}$$ of n discs in the plane can be colored with $$O(\log n)$$ colors in such a way that for any disc B in the plane, not necessarily from $$\mathcal {F}$$ , the set of discs in $$\mathcal {F}$$ that intersect B contains a uniquely-colored element. In view of the original motivation to study such colorings, this strengthening suggests further applications to frequency assignment in wireless networks. Finally, we present bounds on the number of colors needed for conflict-free colorings of other classes of intersection graphs, including intersection graphs of axis-parallel rectangles and of $$\rho $$ -fat objects in the plane.

Approximating dominating set on intersection graphs of rectangles and [formula omitted]-frames

We consider the Minimum Dominating Set (MDS) problem on the intersection graphs of geometric objects. Even for simple and widely-used geometric objects such as rectangles, no sub-logarithmic approximation is known for the problem and (perhaps surprisingly) the problem is NP-hard even when all the rectangles are “anchored” at a diagonal line with slope -1 (Pandit, CCCG 2017). In this paper, we first show that for any ϵ>0, there exists a (2+ϵ)-approximation algorithm for the MDS problem on “diagonal-anchored” rectangles, providing the first O(1)-approximation for the problem on a non-trivial subclass of rectangles. It is not hard to see that the MDS problem on “diagonal-anchored” rectangles is the same as the MDS problem on “diagonal-anchored” L-frames: the union of a vertical and a horizontal line segment that share an endpoint. As such, we also obtain a (2+ϵ)-approximation for the problem with “diagonal-anchored” L-frames.On the other hand, we show that the problem is APX-hard in case the input L-frames intersect the diagonal, or the horizontal segments of the L-frames intersect a vertical line. However, as we show, the problem is linear-time solvable in case the L-frames intersect a vertical as well as a horizontal line. Finally, we consider the MDS problem in the so-called “edge intersection model” and obtain a number of results, answering two questions posed by Mehrabi (WAOA 2017).

The Recognition of Simple-Triangle Graphs and of Linear-Interval Orders is Polynomial

Intersection graphs of geometric objects have been extensively studied, due to both their interesting structure and their numerous applications; prominent examples include interval graphs and permutation graphs. In this paper we study a natural graph class that generalizes both interval and permutation graphs, namely simple-triangle graphs. Simple-triangle graphs---also known as PI (point-interval) graphs---are the intersection graphs of triangles that are defined by a point on a line $L_{1}$ and an interval on a parallel line $L_{2}$. They lie naturally between permutation and trapezoid graphs, which are the intersection graphs of line segments between $L_{1}$ and $L_{2}$ and of trapezoids between $L_{1}$ and $L_{2}$, respectively. Although various efficient recognition algorithms for permutation and trapezoid graphs are well known to exist, the recognition of simple-triangle graphs has remained an open problem since their introduction by Corneil and Kamula three decades ago. In this paper we resolve this problem by proving that simple-triangle graphs can be recognized in polynomial time. Given a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, such that its complement $\overline{G}$ has $m$ edges, our algorithm runs in $O(n^{2}m)$ time. As a consequence, our algorithm also solves a longstanding open problem in the area of partial orders, namely, the recognition of linear-interval orders, i.e., of partial orders $P=P_{1}\cap P_{2}$, where $P_{1}$ is a linear order and $P_{2}$ is an interval order. This is one of the first results on recognizing partial orders $P$ that are the intersection of orders from two different classes $\mathcal{P}_{1}$ and $\mathcal{P}_{2}$. In complete contrast to this, partial orders $P$ which are the intersection of orders from the same class $\mathcal{P}$ have been extensively investigated, and in most cases the complexity status of these recognition problems has been already established.

Triangle-Free Geometric Intersection Graphs with Large Chromatic Number

Several classical constructions illustrate the fact that the chromatic number of a graph can be arbitrarily large compared to its clique number. However, until very recently, no such construction was known for intersection graphs of geometric objects in the plane. We provide a general construction that for any arc-connected compact set $X$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ that is not an axis-aligned rectangle and for any positive integer $k$ produces a family $\mathcal{F}$ of sets, each obtained by an independent horizontal and vertical scaling and translation of $X$, such that no three sets in $\mathcal{F}$ pairwise intersect and $\chi(\mathcal{F})>k$. This provides a negative answer to a question of Gyarfas and Lehel for L-shapes. With extra conditions, we also show how to construct a triangle-free family of homothetic (uniformly scaled) copies of a set with arbitrarily large chromatic number. This applies to many common shapes, like circles, square boundaries, and equilateral L-shapes. Additionally, we reveal a surprising connection between coloring geometric objects in the plane and on-line coloring of intervals on the line.

Coloring [formula omitted]-free intersection graphs of geometric objects in the plane

The intersection graph of a collection C of sets is the graph on the vertex set C, in which C1,C2∈C are joined by an edge if and only if C1∩C2≠0̸. Erdős conjectured that the chromatic number of triangle-free intersection graphs of n segments in the plane is bounded from above by a constant. Here we show that it is bounded by a polylogarithmic function of n, which is the first nontrivial bound for this problem. More generally, we prove that for any t and k, the chromatic number of every Kk-free intersection graph of n curves in the plane, every pair of which have at most t points in common, is at most (ctlognlogk)clogk, where c is an absolute constant and ct only depends on t. We establish analogous results for intersection graphs of convex sets, x-monotone curves, semialgebraic sets of constant description complexity, and sets that can be obtained as the union of a bounded number of sets homeomorphic to a disk.Using a mix of results on partially ordered sets and planar separators, for large k we improve the best known upper bound on the number of edges of a k-quasi-planar topological graph with n vertices, that is, a graph drawn in the plane with curvilinear edges, no k of which are pairwise crossing. As another application, we show that for every ε>0 and for every positive integer t, there exist δ>0 and a positive integer n0 such that every topological graph with n≥n0 vertices, at least n1+ε edges, and no pair of edges intersecting in more than t points, has at least nδ pairwise intersecting edges.

Turán-type results for partial orders and intersection graphs of convex sets

We prove Ramsey-type results for intersection graphs of geometric objects. In particular, we prove the following bounds, all of which are tight apart from the constant c. There is a constant c > 0 such that for every family F of n convex sets in the plane, the intersection graph of F or its complement contains a balanced complete bipartite graph of size at least cn. There is a constant c > 0 such that for every family F of n x-monotone curves in the plane, the intersection graph G of F contains a balanced complete bipartite graph of size at least cn/log n or the complement of G contains a balanced complete bipartite graph of size at least cn. Our bounds rely on new Turan-type results on incomparability graphs of partially ordered sets.

A special planar satisfiability problem and a consequence of its NP-completeness

We introduce a weaker but still NP-complete satisfiability problem to prove NP-completeness of recognizing several classes of intersection graphs of geometric objects in the plane, including grid intersection graphs and graphs of boxicity two.