TY - JOUR AB - Let P be a finite point set in the plane. A cordinary triangle in P is a subset of P consisting of three non-collinear points such that each of the three lines determined by the three points contains at most c points of P . Motivated by a question of Erdös, and answering a question of de Zeeuw, we prove that there exists a constant c > 0such that P contains a c-ordinary triangle, provided that P is not contained in the union of two lines. Furthermore, the number of c-ordinary triangles in P is Ω(| P |). AU - Fulek, Radoslav AU - Mojarrad, Hossein AU - Naszódi, Márton AU - Solymosi, József AU - Stich, Sebastian AU - Szedlák, May ID - 793 JF - Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications SN - 09257721 TI - On the existence of ordinary triangles VL - 66 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We show that c-planarity is solvable in quadratic time for flat clustered graphs with three clusters if the combinatorial embedding of the underlying graph is fixed. In simpler graph-theoretical terms our result can be viewed as follows. Given a graph G with the vertex set partitioned into three parts embedded on a 2-sphere, our algorithm decides if we can augment G by adding edges without creating an edge-crossing so that in the resulting spherical graph the vertices of each part induce a connected sub-graph. We proceed by a reduction to the problem of testing the existence of a perfect matching in planar bipartite graphs. We formulate our result in a slightly more general setting of cyclic clustered graphs, i.e., the simple graph obtained by contracting each cluster, where we disregard loops and multi-edges, is a cycle. AU - Fulek, Radoslav ID - 794 JF - Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications TI - C-planarity of embedded cyclic c-graphs VL - 66 ER - TY - CHAP AB - We show that very weak topological assumptions are enough to ensure the existence of a Helly-type theorem. More precisely, we show that for any non-negative integers b and d there exists an integer h(b, d) such that the following holds. If F is a finite family of subsets of Rd such that βi(∩G)≤b for any G⊊F and every 0 ≤ i ≤ [d/2]-1 then F has Helly number at most h(b, d). Here βi denotes the reduced Z2-Betti numbers (with singular homology). These topological conditions are sharp: not controlling any of these [d/2] first Betti numbers allow for families with unbounded Helly number. Our proofs combine homological non-embeddability results with a Ramsey-based approach to build, given an arbitrary simplicial complex K, some well-behaved chain map C*(K)→C*(Rd). AU - Goaoc, Xavier AU - Paták, Pavel AU - Patakova, Zuzana AU - Tancer, Martin AU - Wagner, Uli ED - Loebl, Martin ED - Nešetřil, Jaroslav ED - Thomas, Robin ID - 424 SN - 978-331944479-6 T2 - A Journey through Discrete Mathematics: A Tribute to Jiri Matousek TI - Bounding helly numbers via betti numbers ER - TY - CONF AB - Bitmap images of arbitrary dimension may be formally perceived as unions of m-dimensional boxes aligned with respect to a rectangular grid in ℝm. Cohomology and homology groups are well known topological invariants of such sets. Cohomological operations, such as the cup product, provide higher-order algebraic topological invariants, especially important for digital images of dimension higher than 3. If such an operation is determined at the level of simplicial chains [see e.g. González-Díaz, Real, Homology, Homotopy Appl, 2003, 83-93], then it is effectively computable. However, decomposing a cubical complex into a simplicial one deleteriously affects the efficiency of such an approach. In order to avoid this overhead, a direct cubical approach was applied in [Pilarczyk, Real, Adv. Comput. Math., 2015, 253-275] for the cup product in cohomology, and implemented in the ChainCon software package [http://www.pawelpilarczyk.com/chaincon/]. We establish a formula for the Steenrod square operations [see Steenrod, Annals of Mathematics. Second Series, 1947, 290-320] directly at the level of cubical chains, and we prove the correctness of this formula. An implementation of this formula is programmed in C++ within the ChainCon software framework. We provide a few examples and discuss the effectiveness of this approach. One specific application follows from the fact that Steenrod squares yield tests for the topological extension problem: Can a given map A → Sd to a sphere Sd be extended to a given super-complex X of A? In particular, the ROB-SAT problem, which is to decide for a given function f: X → ℝm and a value r > 0 whether every g: X → ℝm with ∥g - f ∥∞ ≤ r has a root, reduces to the extension problem. AU - Krcál, Marek AU - Pilarczyk, Pawel ID - 1237 TI - Computation of cubical Steenrod squares VL - 9667 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider higher-dimensional generalizations of the normalized Laplacian and the adjacency matrix of graphs and study their eigenvalues for the Linial–Meshulam model Xk(n, p) of random k-dimensional simplicial complexes on n vertices. We show that for p = Ω(logn/n), the eigenvalues of each of the matrices are a.a.s. concentrated around two values. The main tool, which goes back to the work of Garland, are arguments that relate the eigenvalues of these matrices to those of graphs that arise as links of (k - 2)-dimensional faces. Garland’s result concerns the Laplacian; we develop an analogous result for the adjacency matrix. The same arguments apply to other models of random complexes which allow for dependencies between the choices of k-dimensional simplices. In the second part of the paper, we apply this to the question of possible higher-dimensional analogues of the discrete Cheeger inequality, which in the classical case of graphs relates the eigenvalues of a graph and its edge expansion. It is very natural to ask whether this generalizes to higher dimensions and, in particular, whether the eigenvalues of the higher-dimensional Laplacian capture the notion of coboundary expansion—a higher-dimensional generalization of edge expansion that arose in recent work of Linial and Meshulam and of Gromov; this question was raised, for instance, by Dotterrer and Kahle. We show that this most straightforward version of a higher-dimensional discrete Cheeger inequality fails, in quite a strong way: For every k ≥ 2 and n ∈ N, there is a k-dimensional complex Yn k on n vertices that has strong spectral expansion properties (all nontrivial eigenvalues of the normalised k-dimensional Laplacian lie in the interval [1−O(1/√1), 1+0(1/√1]) but whose coboundary expansion is bounded from above by O(log n/n) and so tends to zero as n → ∞; moreover, Yn k can be taken to have vanishing integer homology in dimension less than k. AU - Gundert, Anna AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 1282 IS - 2 JF - Israel Journal of Mathematics TI - On eigenvalues of random complexes VL - 216 ER - TY - CONF AB - A drawing in the plane (ℝ2) of a graph G = (V,E) equipped with a function γ : V → ℕ is x-bounded if (i) x(u) < x(v) whenever γ(u) < γ(v) and (ii) γ(u) ≤ γ(w) ≤ γ(v), where uv ∈ E and γ(u) ≤ γ(v), whenever x(w) ∈ x(uv), where x(.) denotes the projection to the xaxis.We prove a characterization of isotopy classes of embeddings of connected graphs equipped with γ in the plane containing an x-bounded embedding.Then we present an efficient algorithm, which relies on our result, for testing the existence of an x-bounded embedding if the given graph is a forest.This partially answers a question raised recently by Angelini et al.and Chang et al., and proves that c-planarity testing of flat clustered graphs with three clusters is tractable when the underlying abstract graph is a forest. AU - Fulek, Radoslav ID - 1348 TI - Bounded embeddings of graphs in the plane VL - 9843 ER - TY - CONF AB - Motivated by Tverberg-type problems in topological combinatorics and by classical results about embeddings (maps without double points), we study the question whether a finite simplicial complex K can be mapped into double-struck Rd without higher-multiplicity intersections. We focus on conditions for the existence of almost r-embeddings, i.e., maps f : K → double-struck Rd such that f(σ1) ∩ ⋯ ∩ f(σr) = ∅ whenever σ1, ..., σr are pairwise disjoint simplices of K. Generalizing the classical Haefliger-Weber embeddability criterion, we show that a well-known necessary deleted product condition for the existence of almost r-embeddings is sufficient in a suitable r-metastable range of dimensions: If rd ≥ (r + 1) dim K + 3, then there exists an almost r-embedding K → double-struck Rd if and only if there exists an equivariant map (K)Δ r → Sr Sd(r-1)-1, where (K)Δ r is the deleted r-fold product of K, the target Sd(r-1)-1 is the sphere of dimension d(r - 1) - 1, and Sr is the symmetric group. This significantly extends one of the main results of our previous paper (which treated the special case where d = rk and dim K = (r - 1)k for some k ≥ 3), and settles an open question raised there. AU - Mabillard, Isaac AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 1381 TI - Eliminating higher-multiplicity intersections, II. The deleted product criterion in the r-metastable range VL - 51 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The concept of well group in a special but important case captures homological properties of the zero set of a continuous map (Formula presented.) on a compact space K that are invariant with respect to perturbations of f. The perturbations are arbitrary continuous maps within (Formula presented.) distance r from f for a given (Formula presented.). The main drawback of the approach is that the computability of well groups was shown only when (Formula presented.) or (Formula presented.). Our contribution to the theory of well groups is twofold: on the one hand we improve on the computability issue, but on the other hand we present a range of examples where the well groups are incomplete invariants, that is, fail to capture certain important robust properties of the zero set. For the first part, we identify a computable subgroup of the well group that is obtained by cap product with the pullback of the orientation of (Formula presented.) by f. In other words, well groups can be algorithmically approximated from below. When f is smooth and (Formula presented.), our approximation of the (Formula presented.)th well group is exact. For the second part, we find examples of maps (Formula presented.) with all well groups isomorphic but whose perturbations have different zero sets. We discuss on a possible replacement of the well groups of vector valued maps by an invariant of a better descriptive power and computability status. AU - Franek, Peter AU - Krcál, Marek ID - 1408 IS - 1 JF - Discrete & Computational Geometry TI - On computability and triviality of well groups VL - 56 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We classify smooth Brunnian (i.e., unknotted on both components) embeddings (S2 × S1) ⊔ S3 → ℝ6. Any Brunnian embedding (S2 × S1) ⊔ S3 → ℝ6 is isotopic to an explicitly constructed embedding fk,m,n for some integers k, m, n such that m ≡ n (mod 2). Two embeddings fk,m,n and fk′ ,m′,n′ are isotopic if and only if k = k′, m ≡ m′ (mod 2k) and n ≡ n′ (mod 2k). We use Haefliger’s classification of embeddings S3 ⊔ S3 → ℝ6 in our proof. The relation between the embeddings (S2 × S1) ⊔ S3 → ℝ6 and S3 ⊔ S3 → ℝ6 is not trivial, however. For example, we show that there exist embeddings f: (S2 ×S1) ⊔ S3 → ℝ6 and g, g′ : S3 ⊔ S3 → ℝ6 such that the componentwise embedded connected sum f # g is isotopic to f # g′ but g is not isotopic to g′. AU - Avvakumov, Serhii ID - 1522 IS - 1 JF - Moscow Mathematical Journal TI - The classification of certain linked 3-manifolds in 6-space VL - 16 ER - TY - JOUR AB - For random graphs, the containment problem considers the probability that a binomial random graph G(n, p) contains a given graph as a substructure. When asking for the graph as a topological minor, i.e., for a copy of a subdivision of the given graph, it is well known that the (sharp) threshold is at p = 1/n. We consider a natural analogue of this question for higher-dimensional random complexes Xk(n, p), first studied by Cohen, Costa, Farber and Kappeler for k = 2. Improving previous results, we show that p = Θ(1/ √n) is the (coarse) threshold for containing a subdivision of any fixed complete 2-complex. For higher dimensions k > 2, we get that p = O(n−1/k) is an upper bound for the threshold probability of containing a subdivision of a fixed k-dimensional complex. AU - Gundert, Anna AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 1523 IS - 4 JF - Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society TI - On topological minors in random simplicial complexes VL - 144 ER - TY - CONF AB - A drawing of a graph G is radial if the vertices of G are placed on concentric circles C1, … , Ck with common center c, and edges are drawn radially: every edge intersects every circle centered at c at most once. G is radial planar if it has a radial embedding, that is, a crossing-free radial drawing. If the vertices of G are ordered or partitioned into ordered levels (as they are for leveled graphs), we require that the assignment of vertices to circles corresponds to the given ordering or leveling. A pair of edges e and f in a graph is independent if e and f do not share a vertex. We show that a graph G is radial planar if G has a radial drawing in which every two independent edges cross an even number of times; the radial embedding has the same leveling as the radial drawing. In other words, we establish the strong Hanani-Tutte theorem for radial planarity. This characterization yields a very simple algorithm for radial planarity testing. AU - Fulek, Radoslav AU - Pelsmajer, Michael AU - Schaefer, Marcus ID - 1164 TI - Hanani-Tutte for radial planarity II VL - 9801 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We consider two systems (α1, …, αm) and (β1, …,βn) of simple curves drawn on a compact two-dimensional surface M with boundary. Each αi and each βj is either an arc meeting the boundary of M at its two endpoints, or a closed curve. The αi are pairwise disjoint except for possibly sharing endpoints, and similarly for the βj. We want to “untangle” the βj from the ai by a self-homeomorphism of M; more precisely, we seek a homeomorphism φ:M→M fixing the boundary of M pointwise such that the total number of crossings of the ai with the φ(βj) is as small as possible. This problem is motivated by an application in the algorithmic theory of embeddings and 3-manifolds. We prove that if M is planar, i.e., a sphere with h ≥ 0 boundary components (“holes”), then O(mn) crossings can be achieved (independently of h), which is asymptotically tight, as an easy lower bound shows. In general, for an arbitrary (orientable or nonorientable) surface M with h holes and of (orientable or nonorientable) genus g ≥ 0, we obtain an O((m + n)4) upper bound, again independent of h and g. The proofs rely, among other things, on a result concerning simultaneous planar drawings of graphs by Erten and Kobourov. AU - Matoušek, Jiří AU - Sedgwick, Eric AU - Tancer, Martin AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 1411 IS - 1 JF - Israel Journal of Mathematics TI - Untangling two systems of noncrossing curves VL - 212 ER - TY - CONF AB - We investigate the complexity of finding an embedded non-orientable surface of Euler genus g in a triangulated 3-manifold. This problem occurs both as a natural question in low-dimensional topology, and as a first non-trivial instance of embeddability of complexes into 3-manifolds. We prove that the problem is NP-hard, thus adding to the relatively few hardness results that are currently known in 3-manifold topology. In addition, we show that the problem lies in NP when the Euler genus g is odd, and we give an explicit algorithm in this case. AU - Burton, Benjamin AU - De Mesmay, Arnaud N AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 1379 TI - Finding non-orientable surfaces in 3-manifolds VL - 51 ER - TY - THES AB - Motivated by topological Tverberg-type problems in topological combinatorics and by classical results about embeddings (maps without double points), we study the question whether a finite simplicial complex K can be mapped into Rd without triple, quadruple, or, more generally, r-fold points (image points with at least r distinct preimages), for a given multiplicity r ≤ 2. In particular, we are interested in maps f : K → Rd that have no global r -fold intersection points, i.e., no r -fold points with preimages in r pairwise disjoint simplices of K , and we seek necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of such maps. We present higher-multiplicity analogues of several classical results for embeddings, in particular of the completeness of the Van Kampen obstruction for embeddability of k -dimensional complexes into R2k , k ≥ 3. Speciffically, we show that under suitable restrictions on the dimensions(viz., if dimK = (r ≥ 1)k and d = rk \ for some k ≥ 3), a well-known deleted product criterion (DPC ) is not only necessary but also sufficient for the existence of maps without global r -fold points. Our main technical tool is a higher-multiplicity version of the classical Whitney trick , by which pairs of isolated r -fold points of opposite sign can be eliminated by local modiffications of the map, assuming codimension d – dimK ≥ 3. An important guiding idea for our work was that suffciency of the DPC, together with an old result of Özaydin's on the existence of equivariant maps, might yield an approach to disproving the remaining open cases of the the long-standing topological Tverberg conjecture , i.e., to construct maps from the N -simplex σN to Rd without r-Tverberg points when r not a prime power and N = (d + 1)(r – 1). Unfortunately, our proof of the sufficiency of the DPC requires codimension d – dimK ≥ 3, which is not satisfied for K = σN . In 2015, Frick [16] found a very elegant way to overcome this \codimension 3 obstacle" and to construct the first counterexamples to the topological Tverberg conjecture for all parameters(d; r ) with d ≥ 3r + 1 and r not a prime power, by a reduction1 to a suitable lower-dimensional skeleton, for which the codimension 3 restriction is satisfied and maps without r -Tverberg points exist by Özaydin's result and sufficiency of the DPC. In this thesis, we present a different construction (which does not use the constraint method) that yields counterexamples for d ≥ 3r , r not a prime power. AU - Mabillard, Isaac ID - 1123 SN - 2663-337X TI - Eliminating higher-multiplicity intersections: an r-fold Whitney trick for the topological Tverberg conjecture ER - TY - CONF AB - We show that c-planarity is solvable in quadratic time for flat clustered graphs with three clusters if the combinatorial embedding of the underlying graph is fixed. In simpler graph-theoretical terms our result can be viewed as follows. Given a graph G with the vertex set partitioned into three parts embedded on a 2-sphere, our algorithm decides if we can augment G by adding edges without creating an edge-crossing so that in the resulting spherical graph the vertices of each part induce a connected sub-graph. We proceed by a reduction to the problem of testing the existence of a perfect matching in planar bipartite graphs. We formulate our result in a slightly more general setting of cyclic clustered graphs, i.e., the simple graph obtained by contracting each cluster, where we disregard loops and multi-edges, is a cycle. AU - Fulek, Radoslav ID - 1165 TI - C-planarity of embedded cyclic c-graphs VL - 9801 ER - TY - CONF AB - We give a detailed and easily accessible proof of Gromov's Topological Overlap Theorem. Let X be a finite simplicial complex or, more generally, a finite polyhedral cell complex of dimension d. Informally, the theorem states that if X has sufficiently strong higher-dimensional expansion properties (which generalize edge expansion of graphs and are defined in terms of cellular cochains of X) then X has the following topological overlap property: for every continuous map X → ℝd there exists a point p ∈ ℝd whose preimage intersects a positive fraction μ > 0 of the d-cells of X. More generally, the conclusion holds if ℝd is replaced by any d-dimensional piecewise-linear (PL) manifold M, with a constant μ that depends only on d and on the expansion properties of X, but not on M. AU - Dotterrer, Dominic AU - Kaufman, Tali AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 1378 TI - On expansion and topological overlap VL - 51 ER - TY - CONF AB - The concept of well group in a special but important case captures homological properties of the zero set of a continuous map f from K to R^n on a compact space K that are invariant with respect to perturbations of f. The perturbations are arbitrary continuous maps within L_infty distance r from f for a given r > 0. The main drawback of the approach is that the computability of well groups was shown only when dim K = n or n = 1. Our contribution to the theory of well groups is twofold: on the one hand we improve on the computability issue, but on the other hand we present a range of examples where the well groups are incomplete invariants, that is, fail to capture certain important robust properties of the zero set. For the first part, we identify a computable subgroup of the well group that is obtained by cap product with the pullback of the orientation of R^n by f. In other words, well groups can be algorithmically approximated from below. When f is smooth and dim K < 2n-2, our approximation of the (dim K-n)th well group is exact. For the second part, we find examples of maps f, f' from K to R^n with all well groups isomorphic but whose perturbations have different zero sets. We discuss on a possible replacement of the well groups of vector valued maps by an invariant of a better descriptive power and computability status. AU - Franek, Peter AU - Krcál, Marek ID - 1510 TI - On computability and triviality of well groups VL - 34 ER - TY - CONF AB - A drawing of a graph G is radial if the vertices of G are placed on concentric circles C1, . . . , Ck with common center c, and edges are drawn radially: every edge intersects every circle centered at c at most once. G is radial planar if it has a radial embedding, that is, a crossing- free radial drawing. If the vertices of G are ordered or partitioned into ordered levels (as they are for leveled graphs), we require that the assignment of vertices to circles corresponds to the given ordering or leveling. We show that a graph G is radial planar if G has a radial drawing in which every two edges cross an even number of times; the radial embedding has the same leveling as the radial drawing. In other words, we establish the weak variant of the Hanani-Tutte theorem for radial planarity. This generalizes a result by Pach and Tóth. AU - Fulek, Radoslav AU - Pelsmajer, Michael AU - Schaefer, Marcus ID - 1595 TI - Hanani-Tutte for radial planarity VL - 9411 ER - TY - CHAP AB - Let C={C1,...,Cn} denote a collection of translates of a regular convex k-gon in the plane with the stacking order. The collection C forms a visibility clique if for everyi < j the intersection Ci and (Ci ∩ Cj)\⋃i<l<jCl =∅.elements that are stacked between them, i.e., We show that if C forms a visibility clique its size is bounded from above by O(k4) thereby improving the upper bound of 22k from the aforementioned paper. We also obtain an upper bound of 22(k/2)+2 on the size of a visibility clique for homothetes of a convex (not necessarily regular) k-gon. AU - Fulek, Radoslav AU - Radoičić, Radoš ID - 1596 SN - 978-3-319-27260-3 T2 - Graph Drawing and Network Visualization TI - Vertical visibility among parallel polygons in three dimensions VL - 9411 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The Hanani-Tutte theorem is a classical result proved for the first time in the 1930s that characterizes planar graphs as graphs that admit a drawing in the plane in which every pair of edges not sharing a vertex cross an even number of times. We generalize this result to clustered graphs with two disjoint clusters, and show that a straightforward extension to flat clustered graphs with three or more disjoint clusters is not possible. For general clustered graphs we show a variant of the Hanani-Tutte theorem in the case when each cluster induces a connected subgraph. Di Battista and Frati proved that clustered planarity of embedded clustered graphs whose every face is incident to at most five vertices can be tested in polynomial time. We give a new and short proof of this result, using the matroid intersection algorithm. AU - Fulek, Radoslav AU - Kynčl, Jan AU - Malinovič, Igor AU - Pálvölgyi, Dömötör ID - 1642 IS - 4 JF - Electronic Journal of Combinatorics TI - Clustered planarity testing revisited VL - 22 ER - TY - CONF AB - Given a graph G cellularly embedded on a surface Σ of genus g, a cut graph is a subgraph of G such that cutting Σ along G yields a topological disk. We provide a fixed parameter tractable approximation scheme for the problem of computing the shortest cut graph, that is, for any ε > 0, we show how to compute a (1 + ε) approximation of the shortest cut graph in time f(ε, g)n3. Our techniques first rely on the computation of a spanner for the problem using the technique of brick decompositions, to reduce the problem to the case of bounded tree-width. Then, to solve the bounded tree-width case, we introduce a variant of the surface-cut decomposition of Rué, Sau and Thilikos, which may be of independent interest. AU - Cohen Addad, Vincent AU - De Mesmay, Arnaud N ID - 1685 TI - A fixed parameter tractable approximation scheme for the optimal cut graph of a surface VL - 9294 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We estimate the selection constant in the following geometric selection theorem by Pach: For every positive integer d, there is a constant (Formula presented.) such that whenever (Formula presented.) are n-element subsets of (Formula presented.), we can find a point (Formula presented.) and subsets (Formula presented.) for every i∈[d+1], each of size at least cdn, such that p belongs to all rainbowd-simplices determined by (Formula presented.) simplices with one vertex in each Yi. We show a super-exponentially decreasing upper bound (Formula presented.). The ideas used in the proof of the upper bound also help us to prove Pach’s theorem with (Formula presented.), which is a lower bound doubly exponentially decreasing in d (up to some polynomial in the exponent). For comparison, Pach’s original approach yields a triply exponentially decreasing lower bound. On the other hand, Fox, Pach, and Suk recently obtained a hypergraph density result implying a proof of Pach’s theorem with (Formula presented.). In our construction for the upper bound, we use the fact that the minimum solid angle of every d-simplex is super-exponentially small. This fact was previously unknown and might be of independent interest. For the lower bound, we improve the ‘separation’ part of the argument by showing that in one of the key steps only d+1 separations are necessary, compared to 2d separations in the original proof. We also provide a measure version of Pach’s theorem. AU - Karasev, Roman AU - Kynčl, Jan AU - Paták, Pavel AU - Patakova, Zuzana AU - Tancer, Martin ID - 1688 IS - 3 JF - Discrete & Computational Geometry TI - Bounds for Pach's selection theorem and for the minimum solid angle in a simplex VL - 54 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We study the problem of robust satisfiability of systems of nonlinear equations, namely, whether for a given continuous function f:K→ ℝn on a finite simplicial complex K and α > 0, it holds that each function g: K → ℝn such that ||g - f || ∞ < α, has a root in K. Via a reduction to the extension problem of maps into a sphere, we particularly show that this problem is decidable in polynomial time for every fixed n, assuming dimK ≤ 2n - 3. This is a substantial extension of previous computational applications of topological degree and related concepts in numerical and interval analysis. Via a reverse reduction, we prove that the problem is undecidable when dim K > 2n - 2, where the threshold comes from the stable range in homotopy theory. For the lucidity of our exposition, we focus on the setting when f is simplexwise linear. Such functions can approximate general continuous functions, and thus we get approximation schemes and undecidability of the robust satisfiability in other possible settings. AU - Franek, Peter AU - Krcál, Marek ID - 1682 IS - 4 JF - Journal of the ACM TI - Robust satisfiability of systems of equations VL - 62 ER - TY - JOUR AB - How much cutting is needed to simplify the topology of a surface? We provide bounds for several instances of this question, for the minimum length of topologically non-trivial closed curves, pants decompositions, and cut graphs with a given combinatorial map in triangulated combinatorial surfaces (or their dual cross-metric counterpart). Our work builds upon Riemannian systolic inequalities, which bound the minimum length of non-trivial closed curves in terms of the genus and the area of the surface. We first describe a systematic way to translate Riemannian systolic inequalities to a discrete setting, and vice-versa. This implies a conjecture by Przytycka and Przytycki (Graph structure theory. Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 147, 1993), a number of new systolic inequalities in the discrete setting, and the fact that a theorem of Hutchinson on the edge-width of triangulated surfaces and Gromov’s systolic inequality for surfaces are essentially equivalent. We also discuss how these proofs generalize to higher dimensions. Then we focus on topological decompositions of surfaces. Relying on ideas of Buser, we prove the existence of pants decompositions of length O(g^(3/2)n^(1/2)) for any triangulated combinatorial surface of genus g with n triangles, and describe an O(gn)-time algorithm to compute such a decomposition. Finally, we consider the problem of embedding a cut graph (or more generally a cellular graph) with a given combinatorial map on a given surface. Using random triangulations, we prove (essentially) that, for any choice of a combinatorial map, there are some surfaces on which any cellular embedding with that combinatorial map has length superlinear in the number of triangles of the triangulated combinatorial surface. There is also a similar result for graphs embedded on polyhedral triangulations. AU - Colin De Verdière, Éric AU - Hubard, Alfredo AU - De Mesmay, Arnaud N ID - 1730 IS - 3 JF - Discrete & Computational Geometry TI - Discrete systolic inequalities and decompositions of triangulated surfaces VL - 53 ER - TY - CONF AB - The fact that the complete graph K_5 does not embed in the plane has been generalized in two independent directions. On the one hand, the solution of the classical Heawood problem for graphs on surfaces established that the complete graph K_n embeds in a closed surface M if and only if (n-3)(n-4) is at most 6b_1(M), where b_1(M) is the first Z_2-Betti number of M. On the other hand, Van Kampen and Flores proved that the k-skeleton of the n-dimensional simplex (the higher-dimensional analogue of K_{n+1}) embeds in R^{2k} if and only if n is less or equal to 2k+2. Two decades ago, Kuhnel conjectured that the k-skeleton of the n-simplex embeds in a compact, (k-1)-connected 2k-manifold with kth Z_2-Betti number b_k only if the following generalized Heawood inequality holds: binom{n-k-1}{k+1} is at most binom{2k+1}{k+1} b_k. This is a common generalization of the case of graphs on surfaces as well as the Van Kampen--Flores theorem. In the spirit of Kuhnel's conjecture, we prove that if the k-skeleton of the n-simplex embeds in a 2k-manifold with kth Z_2-Betti number b_k, then n is at most 2b_k binom{2k+2}{k} + 2k + 5. This bound is weaker than the generalized Heawood inequality, but does not require the assumption that M is (k-1)-connected. Our proof uses a result of Volovikov about maps that satisfy a certain homological triviality condition. AU - Goaoc, Xavier AU - Mabillard, Isaac AU - Paták, Pavel AU - Patakova, Zuzana AU - Tancer, Martin AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 1511 TI - On generalized Heawood inequalities for manifolds: A Van Kampen–Flores-type nonembeddability result VL - 34 ER - TY - GEN AB - We study conditions under which a finite simplicial complex $K$ can be mapped to $\mathbb R^d$ without higher-multiplicity intersections. An almost $r$-embedding is a map $f: K\to \mathbb R^d$ such that the images of any $r$ pairwise disjoint simplices of $K$ do not have a common point. We show that if $r$ is not a prime power and $d\geq 2r+1$, then there is a counterexample to the topological Tverberg conjecture, i.e., there is an almost $r$-embedding of the $(d+1)(r-1)$-simplex in $\mathbb R^d$. This improves on previous constructions of counterexamples (for $d\geq 3r$) based on a series of papers by M. \"Ozaydin, M. Gromov, P. Blagojevi\'c, F. Frick, G. Ziegler, and the second and fourth present authors. The counterexamples are obtained by proving the following algebraic criterion in codimension 2: If $r\ge3$ and if $K$ is a finite $2(r-1)$-complex then there exists an almost $r$-embedding $K\to \mathbb R^{2r}$ if and only if there exists a general position PL map $f:K\to \mathbb R^{2r}$ such that the algebraic intersection number of the $f$-images of any $r$ pairwise disjoint simplices of $K$ is zero. This result can be restated in terms of cohomological obstructions or equivariant maps, and extends an analogous codimension 3 criterion by the second and fourth authors. As another application we classify ornaments $f:S^3 \sqcup S^3\sqcup S^3\to \mathbb R^5$ up to ornament concordance. It follows from work of M. Freedman, V. Krushkal and P. Teichner that the analogous criterion for $r=2$ is false. We prove a lemma on singular higher-dimensional Borromean rings, yielding an elementary proof of the counterexample. AU - Avvakumov, Sergey AU - Mabillard, Isaac AU - Skopenkov, A. AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 8183 T2 - arXiv TI - Eliminating higher-multiplicity intersections, III. Codimension 2 ER - TY - CONF AB - We show that very weak topological assumptions are enough to ensure the existence of a Helly-type theorem. More precisely, we show that for any non-negative integers b and d there exists an integer h(b,d) such that the following holds. If F is a finite family of subsets of R^d such that the ith reduced Betti number (with Z_2 coefficients in singular homology) of the intersection of any proper subfamily G of F is at most b for every non-negative integer i less or equal to (d-1)/2, then F has Helly number at most h(b,d). These topological conditions are sharp: not controlling any of these first Betti numbers allow for families with unbounded Helly number. Our proofs combine homological non-embeddability results with a Ramsey-based approach to build, given an arbitrary simplicial complex K, some well-behaved chain map from C_*(K) to C_*(R^d). Both techniques are of independent interest. AU - Goaoc, Xavier AU - Paták, Pavel AU - Patakova, Zuzana AU - Tancer, Martin AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 1512 TI - Bounding Helly numbers via Betti numbers VL - 34 ER - TY - CONF AB - The Hanani–Tutte theorem is a classical result proved for the first time in the 1930s that characterizes planar graphs as graphs that admit a drawing in the plane in which every pair of edges not sharing a vertex cross an even number of times. We generalize this classical result to clustered graphs with two disjoint clusters, and show that a straightforward extension of our result to flat clustered graphs with three or more disjoint clusters is not possible. We also give a new and short proof for a related result by Di Battista and Frati based on the matroid intersection algorithm. AU - Fulek, Radoslav AU - Kynčl, Jan AU - Malinović, Igor AU - Pálvölgyi, Dömötör ID - 10793 SN - 0302-9743 T2 - International Symposium on Graph Drawing TI - Clustered planarity testing revisited VL - 8871 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We prove polynomial upper bounds of geometric Ramsey numbers of pathwidth-2 outerplanar triangulations in both convex and general cases. We also prove that the geometric Ramsey numbers of the ladder graph on 2n vertices are bounded by O(n3) and O(n10), in the convex and general case, respectively. We then apply similar methods to prove an (Formula presented.) upper bound on the Ramsey number of a path with n ordered vertices. AU - Cibulka, Josef AU - Gao, Pu AU - Krcál, Marek AU - Valla, Tomáš AU - Valtr, Pavel ID - 1842 IS - 1 JF - Discrete & Computational Geometry TI - On the geometric ramsey number of outerplanar graphs VL - 53 ER - TY - JOUR AB - A result of Boros and Füredi (d = 2) and of Bárány (arbitrary d) asserts that for every d there exists cd > 0 such that for every n-point set P ⊂ ℝd, some point of ℝd is covered by at least (Formula presented.) of the d-simplices spanned by the points of P. The largest possible value of cd has been the subject of ongoing research. Recently Gromov improved the existing lower bounds considerably by introducing a new, topological proof method. We provide an exposition of the combinatorial component of Gromov's approach, in terms accessible to combinatorialists and discrete geometers, and we investigate the limits of his method. In particular, we give tighter bounds on the cofilling profiles for the (n - 1)-simplex. These bounds yield a minor improvement over Gromov's lower bounds on cd for large d, but they also show that the room for further improvement through the cofilling profiles alone is quite small. We also prove a slightly better lower bound for c3 by an approach using an additional structure besides the cofilling profiles. We formulate a combinatorial extremal problem whose solution might perhaps lead to a tight lower bound for cd. AU - Matoušek, Jiří AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 2154 IS - 1 JF - Discrete & Computational Geometry TI - On Gromov's method of selecting heavily covered points VL - 52 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Given topological spaces X,Y, a fundamental problem of algebraic topology is understanding the structure of all continuous maps X→ Y. We consider a computational version, where X,Y are given as finite simplicial complexes, and the goal is to compute [X,Y], that is, all homotopy classes of suchmaps.We solve this problem in the stable range, where for some d ≥ 2, we have dim X ≤ 2d-2 and Y is (d-1)-connected; in particular, Y can be the d-dimensional sphere Sd. The algorithm combines classical tools and ideas from homotopy theory (obstruction theory, Postnikov systems, and simplicial sets) with algorithmic tools from effective algebraic topology (locally effective simplicial sets and objects with effective homology). In contrast, [X,Y] is known to be uncomputable for general X,Y, since for X = S1 it includes a well known undecidable problem: testing triviality of the fundamental group of Y. In follow-up papers, the algorithm is shown to run in polynomial time for d fixed, and extended to other problems, such as the extension problem, where we are given a subspace A ⊂ X and a map A→ Y and ask whether it extends to a map X → Y, or computing the Z2-index-everything in the stable range. Outside the stable range, the extension problem is undecidable. AU - Čadek, Martin AU - Krcál, Marek AU - Matoušek, Jiří AU - Sergeraert, Francis AU - Vokřínek, Lukáš AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 2184 IS - 3 JF - Journal of the ACM TI - Computing all maps into a sphere VL - 61 ER - TY - GEN AU - Huszár, Kristóf AU - Rolinek, Michal ID - 7038 TI - Playful Math - An introduction to mathematical games ER - TY - CONF AB - Motivated by topological Tverberg-type problems, we consider multiple (double, triple, and higher multiplicity) selfintersection points of maps from finite simplicial complexes (compact polyhedra) into ℝd and study conditions under which such multiple points can be eliminated. The most classical case is that of embeddings (i.e., maps without double points) of a κ-dimensional complex K into ℝ2κ. For this problem, the work of van Kampen, Shapiro, and Wu provides an efficiently testable necessary condition for embeddability (namely, vanishing of the van Kampen ob-struction). For κ ≥ 3, the condition is also sufficient, and yields a polynomial-time algorithm for deciding embeddability: One starts with an arbitrary map f : K→ℝ2κ, which generically has finitely many double points; if k ≥ 3 and if the obstruction vanishes then one can successively remove these double points by local modifications of the map f. One of the main tools is the famous Whitney trick that permits eliminating pairs of double points of opposite intersection sign. We are interested in generalizing this approach to intersection points of higher multiplicity. We call a point y 2 ℝd an r-fold Tverberg point of a map f : Kκ →ℝd if y lies in the intersection f(σ1)∩. ∩f(σr) of the images of r pairwise disjoint simplices of K. The analogue of (non-)embeddability that we study is the problem Tverbergκ r→d: Given a κ-dimensional complex K, does it satisfy a Tverberg-type theorem with parameters r and d, i.e., does every map f : K κ → ℝd have an r-fold Tverberg point? Here, we show that for fixed r, κ and d of the form d = rm and k = (r-1)m, m ≥ 3, there is a polynomial-time algorithm for deciding this (based on the vanishing of a cohomological obstruction, as in the case of embeddings). Our main tool is an r-fold analogue of the Whitney trick: Given r pairwise disjoint simplices of K such that the intersection of their images contains two r-fold Tverberg points y+ and y- of opposite intersection sign, we can eliminate y+ and y- by a local isotopy of f. In a subsequent paper, we plan to develop this further and present a generalization of the classical Haeiger-Weber Theorem (which yields a necessary and sufficient condition for embeddability of κ-complexes into ℝd for a wider range of dimensions) to intersection points of higher multiplicity. AU - Mabillard, Isaac AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 2159 T2 - Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry TI - Eliminating Tverberg points, I. An analogue of the Whitney trick ER - TY - CONF AB - We show that the following algorithmic problem is decidable: given a 2-dimensional simplicial complex, can it be embedded (topologically, or equivalently, piecewise linearly) in ℝ3? By a known reduction, it suffices to decide the embeddability of a given triangulated 3-manifold X into the 3-sphere S3. The main step, which allows us to simplify X and recurse, is in proving that if X can be embedded in S3, then there is also an embedding in which X has a short meridian, i.e., an essential curve in the boundary of X bounding a disk in S3 nX with length bounded by a computable function of the number of tetrahedra of X. AU - Matoušek, Jiří AU - Sedgwick, Eric AU - Tancer, Martin AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 2157 T2 - Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry TI - Embeddability in the 3 sphere is decidable ER - TY - CONF AB - We consider two systems (α1,...,αm) and (β1,...,βn) of curves drawn on a compact two-dimensional surface ℳ with boundary. Each αi and each βj is either an arc meeting the boundary of ℳ at its two endpoints, or a closed curve. The αi are pairwise disjoint except for possibly sharing endpoints, and similarly for the βj. We want to "untangle" the βj from the αi by a self-homeomorphism of ℳ; more precisely, we seek an homeomorphism φ: ℳ → ℳ fixing the boundary of ℳ pointwise such that the total number of crossings of the αi with the φ(βj) is as small as possible. This problem is motivated by an application in the algorithmic theory of embeddings and 3-manifolds. We prove that if ℳ is planar, i.e., a sphere with h ≥ 0 boundary components ("holes"), then O(mn) crossings can be achieved (independently of h), which is asymptotically tight, as an easy lower bound shows. In general, for an arbitrary (orientable or nonorientable) surface ℳ with h holes and of (orientable or nonorientable) genus g ≥ 0, we obtain an O((m + n)4) upper bound, again independent of h and g. AU - Matoušek, Jiří AU - Sedgwick, Eric AU - Tancer, Martin AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 2244 TI - Untangling two systems of noncrossing curves VL - 8242 ER - TY - CONF AB - We consider several basic problems of algebraic topology, with connections to combinatorial and geometric questions, from the point of view of computational complexity. The extension problem asks, given topological spaces X; Y , a subspace A ⊆ X, and a (continuous) map f : A → Y , whether f can be extended to a map X → Y . For computational purposes, we assume that X and Y are represented as finite simplicial complexes, A is a subcomplex of X, and f is given as a simplicial map. In this generality the problem is undecidable, as follows from Novikov's result from the 1950s on uncomputability of the fundamental group π1(Y ). We thus study the problem under the assumption that, for some k ≥ 2, Y is (k - 1)-connected; informally, this means that Y has \no holes up to dimension k-1" (a basic example of such a Y is the sphere Sk). We prove that, on the one hand, this problem is still undecidable for dimX = 2k. On the other hand, for every fixed k ≥ 2, we obtain an algorithm that solves the extension problem in polynomial time assuming Y (k - 1)-connected and dimX ≤ 2k - 1. For dimX ≤ 2k - 2, the algorithm also provides a classification of all extensions up to homotopy (continuous deformation). This relies on results of our SODA 2012 paper, and the main new ingredient is a machinery of objects with polynomial-time homology, which is a polynomial-time analog of objects with effective homology developed earlier by Sergeraert et al. We also consider the computation of the higher homotopy groups πk(Y ), k ≥ 2, for a 1-connected Y . Their computability was established by Brown in 1957; we show that πk(Y ) can be computed in polynomial time for every fixed k ≥ 2. On the other hand, Anick proved in 1989 that computing πk(Y ) is #P-hard if k is a part of input, where Y is a cell complex with certain rather compact encoding. We strengthen his result to #P-hardness for Y given as a simplicial complex. AU - Čadek, Martin AU - Krcál, Marek AU - Matoušek, Jiří AU - Vokřínek, Lukáš AU - Wagner, Uli ID - 2807 T2 - 45th Annual ACM Symposium on theory of computing TI - Extending continuous maps: Polynomiality and undecidability ER -