Short Flip Sequences to Untangle Segments in the Plane

TL;DR

This paper develops efficient strategies for untangling segments in the plane through flips, extending linear bounds from convex to general positions, applicable to various multigraph problems.

Contribution

It generalizes flip-based untangling bounds from convex to arbitrary endpoint configurations in the plane.

Findings

Linear bounds on flips for non-convex configurations

Near-linear bounds established for general positions

Applicable to multiple multigraph problems

Abstract

A (multi)set of segments in the plane may form a TSP tour, a matching, a tree, or any multigraph. If two segments cross, then we can reduce the total length with the following flip operation. We remove a pair of crossing segments, and insert a pair of non-crossing segments, while keeping the same vertex degrees. The goal of this paper is to devise efficient strategies to flip the segments in order to obtain crossing-free segments after a small number of flips. Linear and near-linear bounds on the number of flips were only known for segments with endpoints in convex position. We generalize these results, proving linear and near-linear bounds for cases with endpoints that are not in convex position. Our results are proved in a general setting that applies to multiple problems, using multigraphs and the distinction between removal and insertion choices when performing a flip.