An Improved Bound for Plane Covering Paths

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Akitaya, Hugo A., Aloupis, Greg, Biniaz, Ahmad, Bose, Prosenjit, De Carufel, Jean-Lou, Gavoille, Cyril, Iacono, John, Kleist, Linda, Smid, Michiel, Souvaine, Diane, Theocharous, Leonidas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866912472837914624
author Akitaya, Hugo A.
Aloupis, Greg
Biniaz, Ahmad
Bose, Prosenjit
De Carufel, Jean-Lou
Gavoille, Cyril
Iacono, John
Kleist, Linda
Smid, Michiel
Souvaine, Diane
Theocharous, Leonidas
author_facet Akitaya, Hugo A.
Aloupis, Greg
Biniaz, Ahmad
Bose, Prosenjit
De Carufel, Jean-Lou
Gavoille, Cyril
Iacono, John
Kleist, Linda
Smid, Michiel
Souvaine, Diane
Theocharous, Leonidas
contents A covering path for a finite set $P$ of points in the plane is a polygonal path such that every point of $P$ lies on a segment of the path. The vertices of the path need not be at points of $P$. A covering path is plane if its segments do not cross each other. Let $π(n)$ be the minimum number such that every set of $n$ points in the plane admits a plane covering path with at most $π(n)$ segments. We prove that $π(n)\le \lceil6n/7\rceil$. This improves the previous best-known upper bound of $\lceil 21n/22\rceil$, due to Biniaz (SoCG 2023). Our proof is constructive and yields a simple $O(n\log n)$-time algorithm for computing a plane covering path.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_06477
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Improved Bound for Plane Covering Paths
Akitaya, Hugo A.
Aloupis, Greg
Biniaz, Ahmad
Bose, Prosenjit
De Carufel, Jean-Lou
Gavoille, Cyril
Iacono, John
Kleist, Linda
Smid, Michiel
Souvaine, Diane
Theocharous, Leonidas
Computational Geometry
A covering path for a finite set $P$ of points in the plane is a polygonal path such that every point of $P$ lies on a segment of the path. The vertices of the path need not be at points of $P$. A covering path is plane if its segments do not cross each other. Let $π(n)$ be the minimum number such that every set of $n$ points in the plane admits a plane covering path with at most $π(n)$ segments. We prove that $π(n)\le \lceil6n/7\rceil$. This improves the previous best-known upper bound of $\lceil 21n/22\rceil$, due to Biniaz (SoCG 2023). Our proof is constructive and yields a simple $O(n\log n)$-time algorithm for computing a plane covering path.
title An Improved Bound for Plane Covering Paths
topic Computational Geometry
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.06477