Balázs Keszegh

• PhD
• Senior Researcher at Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics

The study of geometric hypergraphs gave rise to the notion of $ABAB$-free hypergraphs. A hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$ is called $ABAB$-free if there is an ordering of its vertices such that there are no hyperedges $A,B$ and vertices $v_1,v_2,v_3,v_4$ in this order satisfying $v_1,v_3\in A\setminus B$ and $v_2,v_4\in B\setminus A$. In this paper, we pro...

We prove a quasi-linear upper bound on the size of $K_{t,t}$-free polygon visibility graphs. For visibility graphs of star-shaped and monotone polygons we show a linear bound. In the more general setting of $n$ points on a simple closed curve and visibility pseudo-segments, we provide an $O(n \log n)$ upper bound and an $\Omega(n\alpha(n))$ lower b...

In 1972, Branko Gr\"unbaum conjectured that any arrangement of $n>2$ pairwise crossing pseudocircles in the plane can have at most $2n-2$ digons (regions enclosed by exactly two pseudoarcs), with the bound being tight. While this conjecture has been confirmed for cylindrical arrangements of pseudocircles and more recently for geometric circles, we...

We introduce a novel definition of orientation on the triples of a family of pairwise intersecting planar convex sets and study its properties. In particular, we compare it to other systems of orientations on triples that satisfy a so-called interiority condition: $\circlearrowleft(ABD)=\circlearrowleft(BCD)=\circlearrowleft(CAD)=1$ imply $\circlea...

The study of geometric hypergraphs gave rise to the notion of $ABAB$-free hypergraphs. A hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$ is called $ABAB$-free if there is an ordering of its vertices such that there are no hyperedges $A,B$ and vertices $v_1,v_2,v_3,v_4$ in this order satisfying $v_1,v_3\in A\setminus B$ and $v_2,v_4\in B\setminus A$. In this paper, we pro...

For an edge-ordered graph $G$, we say that an $n$-vertex edge-ordered graph $H$ is $G$-saturated if it is $G$-free and adding any new edge with any new label to $H$ introduces a copy of $G$. The saturation function describes the minimum number of edges of a $G$-saturated graph. In particular, we study the order of magnitude of these functions. For...

Geometric motivations warranted the study of hypergraphs on ordered vertices that have no pair of hyperedges that induce an alternation of some given length. Such hypergraphs are called ABA-free, ABAB-free and so on. Since then various coloring and other combinatorial results were proved about these families of hypergraphs. We prove a characterizat...

A long-standing open conjecture of Branko Gr\"unbaum from 1972 states that any simple arrangement of $n$ pairwise intersecting pseudocircles in the plane can have at most $2n-2$ digons. Agarwal et al. proved this conjecture for arrangements of pairwise intersecting pseudocircles in which there is a common point surrounded by all pseudocircles. Rece...

In the game theoretical approach of the basic problem in Combinatorial Search an adversary thinks of a defective element d of an n-element pool X, and the questioner needs to find x by asking questions of type is \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \u...

A \emph{thrackle} is a graph drawn in the plane so that every pair of its edges meet exactly once, either at a common end vertex or in a proper crossing. Conway's thrackle conjecture states that the number of edges is at most the number of vertices. It is known that this conjecture holds for linear thrackles, i.e., when the edges are drawn as strai...

We prove that the number of tangencies between the members of two families, each of which consists of n pairwise disjoint curves, can be as large as $$\Omega (n^{4/3})$$ Ω ( n 4 / 3 ) . We show that from a conjecture about forbidden 0–1 matrices it would follow that this bound is sharp for so-called doubly-grounded families. We also show that if th...

Let $\cal C$ be a set of curves in the plane such that no three curves in $\cal C$ intersect at a single point and every pair of curves in $\cal C$ intersect at exactly one point which is either a crossing or a touching point. According to a conjecture of J\'anos Pach the number of pairs of curves in $\cal C$ that touch each other is $O(|{\cal C}|)...

Recently geometric hypergraphs that can be defined by intersections of pseudohalfplanes with a finite point set were defined in a purely combinatorial way. This led to extensions of earlier results about points and halfplanes to pseudohalfplanes, including polychromatic colorings and discrete Helly-type theorems about pseudohalfplanes. Here we cont...

In the game theoretical approach of the basic problem in Combinatorial Search an adversary thinks of a defective element $d$ of an $n$-element pool $X$, and the questioner needs to find $x$ by asking questions of type is $d\in Q$? for certain subsets $Q$ of $X$. We study cooperative versions of this problem, where there are multiple questioners, bu...

Let $\cC$ be a set of curves in the plane such that no three curves in $\cC$ intersect at a single point and every pair of curves in $\cC$ intersect at exactly one point which is either a crossing or a touching point. According to a conjecture of J\'anos Pach the number of pairs of curves in $\cC$ that touch each other is $O(|\cC|)$. We prove this...

What is the maximum number of intersections of the boundaries of a simple m -gon and a simple n -gon? This is a basic question in combinatorial geometry, and the answer is easy if at least one of m and n is even: If both m and n are even, then every pair of sides may cross and so the answer is mn . If exactly one polygon, say the n -gon, has an odd...

We study $\mathrm{exa}_k(n,F)$, the largest number of edges in an $n$-vertex graph $G$ that contains exactly $k$ copies of a given subgraph $F$. The case $k=0$ is the Tur\'an number $\mathrm{ex}(n,F)$ that is among the most studied parameters in extremal graph theory. We show that for any $F$ and $k$, $\mathrm{exa}_k(n,F)=(1+o(1))\mathrm{ex}(n,F))$...

Consider a hypergraph whose vertex set is a family of $n$ lines in general position in the plane, and whose hyperedges are induced by intersections with a family of pseudo-discs. We prove that the number of $t$-hyperedges is bounded by $O_t(n^2)$ and that the total number of hyperedges is bounded by $O(n^3)$. Both bounds are tight.

We study systems of orientations on triples that satisfy the following so-called interiority condition: $\circlearrowleft(ABD)=~\circlearrowleft(BCD)=~\circlearrowleft(CAD)=1$ implies $\circlearrowleft(ABC)=1$ for any $A,B,C,D$. We call such an orientation a P3O (partial 3-order), a natural generalization of a poset that has several interesting spe...

We introduce a novel definition of orientation on the triples of a family of pairwise intersecting planar convex sets and study its properties. In particular, we compare it to other systems of orientations on triples that satisfy a so-called interiority condition: $\circlearrowleft(ABD)=~\circlearrowleft(BCD)=~\circlearrowleft(CAD)=1$ imply $\circl...

Inspired by earlier results about proper and polychromatic coloring of hypergraphs, we investigate such colorings of directed hypergraphs, that is, hypergraphs in which the vertices of each hyperedge is partitioned into two parts, a tail and a head. We present a conjecture of D. P\'alv\"olgyi and the author, which states that directed hypergraphs w...

Recently, the saturation problem of $0$-$1$ matrices gained a lot of attention. This problem can be regarded as a saturation problem of ordered bipartite graphs. Motivated by this, we initiate the study of the saturation problem of ordered and cyclically ordered graphs. We prove that dichotomy holds also in these two cases, i.e., for a (cyclically)...

We prove discrete Helly-type theorems for pseudohalfplanes, which extend recent results of Jensen, Joshi and Ray about halfplanes. Among others we show that given a family of pseudohalfplanes H and a set of points P, if every triple of pseudohalfplanes has a common point in P then there exists a set of at most two points that hits every pseudohalfp...

Recently geometric hypergraphs that can be defined by intersections of pseudohalfplanes with a finite point set were defined in a purely combinatorial way. This led to extensions of earlier results about points and halfplanes to pseudohalfplanes, including polychromatic colorings and discrete Helly-type theorems about pseudohalfplanes. Here we cont...

We prove that the number of tangencies between the members of two families, each of which consists of $n$ pairwise disjoint curves, can be as large as $\Omega(n^{4/3})$. We show that from a conjecture about forbidden $0$-$1$ matrices it would follow that this bound is sharp for doubly-grounded families. We also show that if the curves are required...

A subfamily G⊆F⊆2[n] of sets is a non-induced (weak) copy of a poset P in F if there exists a bijection i:P→G such that p≤Pq implies i(p)⊆i(q). In the case where in addition p≤Pq holds if and only if i(p)⊆i(q), then G is an induced (strong) copy of P in F. We consider the minimum number sat(n,P) [resp. sat⁎(n,P)] of sets that a family F⊆2[n] can ha...

We prove that there are O(n) tangencies among any set of n red and blue planar curves in which every pair of curves intersects at most once and no two curves of the same color intersect. If every pair of curves may intersect more than once, then it is known that the number of tangencies could be super-linear. However, we show that a linear upper bo...

We prove discrete Helly-type theorems for pseudohalfplanes, which extend recent results of Jensen, Joshi and Ray about halfplanes. Among others we show that given a family of pseudohalfplanes H and a set of points P, if every triple of pseudohalfplanes has a common point in P then there exists a set of at most two points that hits every pseudohalfp...

In 1964, Erdős, Hajnal and Moon introduced a saturation version of Turán’s classical theorem in extremal graph theory. In particular, they determined the minimum number of edges in a Kr-free, n-vertex graph with the property that the addition of any further edge yields a copy of Kr. We consider analogues of this problem in other settings. We prove...

We prove discrete Helly-type theorems for pseudohalfplanes, which extend recent results of Jensen, Joshi and Ray about halfplanes. Among others we show that given a family of pseudohalfplanes $\cal H$ and a set of points $P$, if every triple of pseudohalfplanes has a common point in $P$ then there exists a set of at most two points that hits every...

We prove that there are $O(n)$ tangencies among any set of $n$ red and blue planar curves in which every pair of curves intersects at most once and no two curves of the same color intersect. If every pair of curves may intersect more than once, then it is known that the number of tangencies could be super-linear. However, we show that a linear uppe...

Suppose that the vertices of a graph G are colored with two colors in an unknown way. The color that occurs on more than half of the vertices is called the majority color (if it exists), and any vertex of this color is called a majority vertex. We study the problem of finding a majority vertex (or show that none exists), if we can query edges to le...

We consider geometric hypergraphs whose vertex set is a finite set of points (e.g., in the plane), and whose hyperedges are the intersections of this set with a family of geometric regions (e.g., axis-parallel rectangles). A typical coloring problem for such geometric hypergraphs asks, given an integer k, for the existence of an integer m=m(k), suc...

We give a characterization of finite sets of triples of elements (e.g., positive integers) that can be colored with two colors such that for every element i in each color class there exists a triple which does not contain i. We give a linear (in the number of triples) time algorithm to decide if such a coloring exists and find one if it does. We al...

A $0$-$1$ matrix $M$ is saturating for a $0$-$1$ matrix $P$ if $M$ does not contain a submatrix that can be turned into $P$ by changing some $1$ entries to $0$ entries, and changing an arbitrary $0$ to $1$ in $M$ introduces such a submatrix in $M$. In saturation problems for $0$-$1$ matrices we are interested in estimating the minimum number of $1$...

We prove that the intersection hypergraph of a family of $n$ pseudo-disks with respect to another family of pseudo-disks admits a proper coloring with $4$ colors and a conflict-free coloring with $O(\log n)$ colors. Along the way we prove that the respective Delaunay-graph is planar. We also prove that the intersection hypergraph of a family of $n$...

We prove that it is always possible to color online nonrepetitively any (partial) k-tree (that is, graphs with tree-width at most k) with 4k colors. This implies that it is always possible to color online nonrepetitively cycles, trees and series-parallel graphs with 16 colors. Our results generalize the respective (offline) nonrepetitive coloring r...

A subfamily $\{F_1,F_2,\dots,F_{|P|}\}\subseteq \mathcal{F}$ of sets is a copy of a poset $P$ in $\mathcal{F}$ if there exists a bijection $\phi:P\rightarrow \{F_1,F_2,\dots,F_{|P|}\}$ such that whenever $x \le_P x'$ holds, then so does $\phi(x)\subseteq \phi(x')$. For a family $\mathcal{F}$ of sets, let $c(P,\mathcal{F})$ denote the number of copi...

We are given a set A of buyers, a set B of houses, and for each buyer a preference list, i.e., an ordering of the houses. A house allocation is an injective mapping τ from A to B, and τ is strictly better than another house allocation τ′≠τ if for every buyer i, τ′(i) does not come before τ(i) in the preference list of i. A house allocation is Paret...

In 1964, Erd\H{o}s, Hajnal and Moon introduced a saturation version of Tur\'an's classical theorem in extremal graph theory. In particular, they determined the minimum number of edges in a $K_r$-free, $n$-vertex graph with the property that the addition of any further edge yields a copy of $K_r$. We consider analogues of this problem in other setti...

A subfamily $\mathcal{G}\subseteq \mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ of sets is a non-induced (weak) copy of a poset $P$ in $\mathcal{F}$ if there exists a bijection $i:P\rightarrow \mathcal{G}$ such that $p\le_P q$ implies $i(p)\subseteq i(q)$. In the case where in addition $p\le_P q$ holds if and only if $i(p)\subseteq i(q)$, then $\mathcal{G}$ is an...

What is the maximum number of intersections of the boundaries of a simple $m$-gon and a simple $n$-gon, assuming general position? This is a basic question in combinatorial geometry, and the answer is easy if at least one of $m$ and $n$ is even: If both $m$ and $n$ are even, then every pair of sides may cross and so the answer is $mn$. If exactly o...

We study covering numbers and local covering numbers with respect to difference graphs and complete bipartite graphs. In particular we show that in every cover of a Young diagram with $\binom{2k}{k}$ steps with generalized rectangles there is a row or a column in the diagram that is used by at least $k+1$ rectangles, and prove that this is best-pos...

We are given a set $A$ of buyers, a set $B$ of houses, and for each buyer a preference list, i.e., an ordering of the houses. A house allocation is an injective mapping $\tau$ from $A$ to $B$, and $\tau$ is strictly better than another house allocation $\tau'\neq \tau$ if for every buyer $i$, $\tau'(i)$ does not come before $\tau(i)$ in the prefere...

We give a characterization of finite sets of triples of elements (e.g., positive integers) that can be colored with two colors such that for every element $i$ in each color class there exists a triple which does not contain $i$. We give a linear (in the number of triples) time algorithm to decide if such a coloring exists and find one if it does. W...

We study whether for a given planar family \({\mathcal {F}}\) there is an m such that any finite set of points can be 3-colored so that any member of \({\mathcal {F}}\) that contains at least m points contains two points with different colors. We conjecture that if \({\mathcal {F}}\) is a family of pseudo-disks, then such an m exists. We prove this...

We prove that it is always possible to color online nonrepetitively any (partial) $k$-tree (that is, graphs with tree-width at most $k$) with $4^k$ colors. This implies that it is always possible to color online nonrepetitively cycles, trees and series-parallel graphs with $16$ colors. Our results generalize the respective (offline) nonrepetitive c...

Suppose that the vertices of a graph $G$ are colored with two colors in an unknown way. The color that occurs on more than half of the vertices is called the majority color (if it exists), and any vertex of this color is called a majority vertex. We study the problem of finding a majority vertex (or show that none exists) if we can query edges to l...

What is the minimum number of colors that always suffice to color every planar set of points such that any disk that contains enough points contains two points of different colors? It is known that the answer to this question is either three or four. We show that three colors always suffice if the condition must be satisfied only by disks that cont...

We consider geometric graphs whose vertex set is a finite set of points (e.g., in the plane), and whose hyperedges are the intersections of this set with a family of geometric regions (e.g., axis-parallel rectangles). A typical coloring problem for such geometric hypergraphs asks, given an integer $k$, for the existence of an integer $m=m(k)$, such...

We study general Delaunay-graphs, which are a natural generalizations of Delaunay triangulations to arbitrary families. We prove that for any finite pseudo-disk family and point set, there is a plane drawing of their Delaunay-graph such that every edge lies inside every pseudo-disk that contains its endpoints.

We consider the problem of $2$-coloring geometric hypergraphs. Specifically, we show that there is a constant $m$ such that any finite set $\mathcal{S}$ of points in the plane can be $2$-colored such that every axis-parallel square that contains at least $m$ points from $\mathcal{S}$ contains points of both colors. Our proof is constructive, that i...

We prove that the intersection hypergraph of a family of $n$ pseudo-disks with respect to another family of pseudo-disks admits a proper coloring with $4$ colors and a conflict-free coloring with $O(\log n)$ colors. Along the way we prove that the respective Delaunay-graph is planar. We also prove that the intersection hypergraph of a family of $n$...

Erdős and Moser raised the question of determining the maximum number of maximal cliques or, equivalently, the maximum number of maximal independent sets in a graph on vertices. Since then there has been a lot of research along these lines. A ‐dominating independent set is an independent set such that every vertex not contained in has at least neig...

Erd\H{o}s and Moser raised the question of determining the maximum number of maximal cliques or equivalently, the maximum number of maximal independent sets in a graph on $n$ vertices. Since then there has been a lot of research along these lines. A $k$-dominating independent set is an independent set $D$ such that every vertex not contained in $D$...

We prove the quarter of a century old conjecture of Erdős that every K4-free graph with n vertices and edges contains m pairwise edge disjoint triangles.

We consider the RMS-distance (sum of squared distances between pairs of points) under translation between two point sets in the plane. In the Hausdorff setup, each point is paired to its nearest neighbor in the other set. We develop algorithms for finding a local minimum in near-linear time on the line, and in nearly quadratic time in the plane. Th...

This paper studies the choice number and paint number of the lexicographic product of graphs. We prove that if has maximum degree , then for any graph on vertices and .

A subfamily $\{F_1,F_2,\dots,F_{|P|}\}\subseteq {\cal F}$ of sets is a copy of a poset $P$ in ${\cal F}$ if there exists a bijection $\phi:P\rightarrow \{F_1,F_2,\dots,F_{|P|}\}$ such that whenever $x \le_P x'$ holds, then so does $\phi(x)\subseteq \phi(x')$. For a family ${\cal F}$ of sets, let $c(P,{\cal F})$ denote the number of copies of $P$ in...

We study whether for a given planar family F there is an m such that any finite set of points can be 3-colored such that any member of F that contains at least m points contains two points with different colors. We conjecture that if F is a family of pseudo-disks, then such an m exists. We prove this in the special case when F is the family of all...

In an instance of the house allocation problem, two sets A and B are given. The set A is referred to as applicants and the set B is referred to as houses. We denote by m and n the size of A and B, respectively. In the house allocation problem, we assume that every applicant a∈A has a preference list over the set of houses B. We call an injective ma...

Suppose we are given a set of balls each colored either red or blue in some way unknown to us. To find out some information about the colors, we can query any triple of balls . As an answer to such a query we obtain (the index of) a majority ball, that is, a ball whose color is the same as the color of another ball from the triple. Our goal is to f...

We consider proper online colorings of hypergraphs defined by geometric regions. Among others we prove that there is an online coloring method that colors $N$ intervals on the line using $\Theta(\log N/k)$ colors such that for every point $p$, contained in at least $k$ intervals, there exist two intervals containing $p$ and having different colors....

Let $L$ be a set of positive integers. We call a (directed) graph $G$ an $L$\emph{-cycle graph} if all cycle lengths in $G$ belong to $L$. Let $c(L,n)$ be the maximum number of cycles possible in an $n$-vertex $L$-cycle graph (we use $\vec{c}(L,n)$ for the number of cycles in directed graphs). In the undirected case we show that for any fixed set $...

Let $L$ be a set of positive integers. We call a (directed) graph $G$ an $L$\emph{-cycle graph} if all cycle lengths in $G$ belong to $L$. Let $c(L,n)$ be the maximum number of cycles possible in an $n$-vertex $L$-cycle graph (we use $\vec{c}(L,n)$ for the number of cycles in directed graphs). In the undirected case we show that for any fixed set $...

We prove that if an n-vertex graph G can be drawn in the plane such that each pair of crossing edges is independent and there is a crossing-free edge that connects their endpoints, then G has O(n) edges. Graphs that admit such drawings are related to quasi-planar graphs and to maximal 1-planar and fan-planar graphs.

We call a topological ordering of a weighted directed acyclic graph non-negative if the sum of weights on the vertices in any prefix of the ordering, is non-negative. We investigate two processes for constructing non-negative topological orderings of weighted directed acyclic graphs. The first process is called a mark sequence and the second is a g...

Searching in partially ordered structures has been considered in the context of information retrieval and efficient tree-like indices, as well as in hierarchy based knowledge representation. In this paper we focus on tree-like partial orders and consider the problem of identifying an initially unknown vertex in a tree by asking edge queries: an edg...

We study combinatorial parameters of a recently introduced bootstrap percolation problem in finite projective planes. We present sharp results on the size of the minimum percolating sets and the maximal non-percolating sets. Additional results on the minimal and maximal percolation time as well as on the critical probability in the projective plane...

We study combinatorial parameters of a recently introduced bootstrap percolation problem in finite projective planes. We present sharp results on the size of the minimum percolating sets and the maximal non-percolating sets. Additional results on the minimal and maximal percolation time as well as on the critical probability in the projective plane...

Suppose we are given a set of $n$ balls $\{b_1,\ldots,b_n\}$ each colored either red or blue in some way unknown to us. To find out some information about the colors, we can query any triple of balls $\{b_{i_1},b_{i_2},b_{i_3}\}$. As an answer to such a query we obtain (the index of) a {\em majority ball}, that is, a ball whose color is the same as...

A pair of independent and crossing edges in a drawing of a graph is planarly connected if there is a crossing-free edge that connects endpoints of the crossed edges. A graph is a planarly connected crossing (PCC) graph, if it admits a drawing in which every pair of independent and crossing edges is planarly connected. We prove that a PCC graph with...

We prove that if an $n$-vertex graph $G$ can be drawn in the plane such that each pair of crossing edges is independent and there is a crossing-free edge that connects their endpoints, then $G$ has $O(n)$ edges. Graphs that admit such drawings are related to quasi-planar graphs and to maximal $1$-planar and fan-planar graphs.

We show the quarter of a century old conjecture that every $K_4$-free graph with $n$ vertices and $\lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor +k$ edges contains $k$ pairwise edge disjoint triangles.

We show the quarter of a century old conjecture that every $K_4$-free graph with $n$ vertices and $\lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor +k$ edges contains $k$ pairwise edge disjoint triangles.

In this note we improve our upper bound given earlier by showing that every 9-fold covering of a point set in the space by finitely many translates of an octant decomposes into two coverings, and our lower bound by a construction for a 4-fold covering that does not decompose into two coverings. We also prove that certain dynamic interval coloring p...

This paper studies the paint number of the lexicographic product of graphs. We prove that if $G$ has maximum degree $\Delta$, then for any graph $H$ on $n$ vertices, $\chi_P(G[H]) \le (4\Delta+2) (\chi_P(H)+ \log_2 n)$.

The goal of this paper is to give a new, abstract approach to cover-decomposition and polychromatic colorings using hypergraphs on ordered vertex sets. We introduce an abstract version of the framework used for polychromatic coloring halfplanes by Smorodinsky and Yuditsky to so-called ABA-free hypergraphs, a special case of shift-chains. Using our...

We consider the RMS-distance (sum of squared distances between pairs of points) under translation between two point sets in the plane. In the Hausdorff setup, each point is paired to its nearest neighbor in the other set. We develop algorithms for finding a local minimum in near-linear time on the line, and in nearly quadratic time in the plane. Th...

Given a set of points in the plane, a \emph{covering path} is a polygonal path that visits all the points. In this paper we consider covering paths of the vertices of an $n \times m$ grid. We show that the minimal number of segments of such a path is $2\min(n,m)-1$ except when we allow crossings and $n=m\ge 3$, in which case the minimal number of s...

Searching in partially ordered structures has been considered in the context of information retrieval and efficient tree-like indexes, as well as in hierarchy based knowledge representation. In this paper we focus on tree-like partial orders and consider the problem of identifying an initially unknown vertex in a tree by asking edge queries: an edg...

Let $A,B$ with $|A| = m$ and $|B| = n\ge m$ be two sets. We assume that every element $a\in A$ has a reference list over all elements from $B$. We call an injective mapping $\tau$ from $A$ to $B$ a matching. A blocking coalition of $\tau$ is a subset $A'$ of $A$ such that there exists a matching $\tau'$ that differs from $\tau$ only on elements of...

In an instance of the house allocation problem two sets A and B are given. The set A is referred to as applicants and the set B is referred to as houses. We denote by m and n the size of A and B respectively. In the house allocation problem, we assume that every applicant a ∈ A has a preference list over every house b ∈ B. We call an injective mapp...

Given two point sets of sizes n and m, we study the partial matching problem of translating the smaller point set to a position where it is best resembled by an equally sized subset of the larger point set. Measuring the similarity is done by the sum of squares of the Euclidean distances between the matched points in either set. A Voronoi-type diag...

We call a topological ordering of a weighted directed acyclic graph non-negative if the sum of weights on the vertices in any pre?x of the ordering is non-negative. We investigate two processes for constructing non-negative topological orderings of weighted directed acyclic graphs. The ?rst process is called a mark sequence and the second is a gene...

We introduce a new notion for geometric families called self-coverability and show that homothets of convex polygons are self-coverable. As a corollary, we obtain several results about coloring point sets such that any member of the family with many points contains all colors. This is dual (and in some cases equivalent) to the much investigated cov...

Given $n$ points in the plane, a \emph{covering path} is a polygonal path that visits all the points. If no three points are collinear, every covering path requires at least $n/2$ segments, and $n-1$ straight line segments obviously suffice even if the covering path is required to be noncrossing. We show that every set of $n$ points in the plane ad...

Given $n$ points in the plane, a \emph{covering path} is a polygonal path that visits all the points. If no three points are collinear, every covering path requires at least $n/2$ segments, and $n-1$ straight line segments obviously suffice even if the covering path is required to be noncrossing. We show that every set of $n$ points in the plane ad...

We consider the following search problem. Given a graph $G$ with a vertex $s$ there is an unknown path starting from $s$. In one query we ask a vertex $v$ and the answer is the set of edges of the path incident to $v$. We want to determine what is the minimal number of queries needed to find the other endvertex of the path. We consider different va...