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A simple aggregative algorithm for counting triangulations of planar point sets and related problems

Published: 17 June 2013 Publication History

Abstract

We give an algorithm that determines the number (S) of straight line triangulations of a set S of n points in the plane in worst case time O(n2 2n). This is the the first algorithm that is provably faster than enumeration, since (S) is known to be Ω(2.43n) for any set S of n points. Our algorithm requires exponential space.
The algorithm generalizes to counting all triangulations of S that are constrained to contain a given set of edges. It can also be used to compute an optimal triangulation of S (unconstrained or constrained) for a reasonably wide class of optimality criteria (that includes e.g. minimum weight triangulations). Finally, the approach can also be used for the random generation of triangulations of S according to the perfect uniform distribution.
The algorithm has been implement and is substantially faster than existing methods on a variety of inputs.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    SoCG '13: Proceedings of the twenty-ninth annual symposium on Computational geometry
    June 2013
    472 pages
    ISBN:9781450320313
    DOI:10.1145/2462356
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    Publication History

    Published: 17 June 2013

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    Author Tags

    1. counting
    2. geometric graphs
    3. triangulations

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    SoCG '13
    SoCG '13: Symposium on Computational Geometry 2013
    June 17 - 20, 2013
    Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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    SoCG '13 Paper Acceptance Rate 48 of 137 submissions, 35%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 625 of 1,685 submissions, 37%

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