Stabbing a set S of n segments in the plane by a line is a well-known problem. In this paper we consider the variation where the stabbing object is a circle instead of a line. We show that the problem is tightly connected to two cluster Voronoi diagrams, in particular, the Hausdorff and the farthest-color Voronoi diagram. Based on these diagrams, we provide a method to compute a representation of all the combinatorially different stabbing circles for S, and the stabbing circles with maximum and minimum radius. We give conditions under which our method is fast. These conditions are satisfied if the segments in S are parallel, resulting in a O(nlog 2n) time and O(n) space algorithm. We also observe that the stabbing circle problem for S can be solved in worst-case optimal O(n2) time and space by reducing the problem to computing the stabbing planes for a set of segments in 3D. Finally we show that the problem of computing the stabbing circle of minimum radius for a set of n parallel segments of equal length has an Ω(nlog n) lower bound.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)849-884
Number of pages36
JournalAlgorithmica
Volume80
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Mar 2018
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Cluster Voronoi diagrams, Farthest-color Voronoi diagram, Hausdorff Voronoi diagram, Stabbing circle, Stabbing line segments, Voronoi diagram

    Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science(all)
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics

ID: 38613739