Subquadratic Algorithms for Some 3Sum-Hard Geometric Problems in the Algebraic Decision Tree Model

We present subquadratic algorithms in the algebraic decision-tree model for several 3Sum-hard geometric problems, all of which can be reduced to the following question: Given two sets A, B, each consisting of n pairwise disjoint segments in the plane, and a set C of n triangles in the plane, we want to count, for each triangle ∆ ∈ C, the number of intersection points between the segments of A and those of B that lie in ∆. The problems considered in this paper have been studied by Chan (2020), who gave algorithms that solve them, in the standard real-RAM model, in O((n²/log² n) log^O(1) log n) time. We present solutions in the algebraic decision-tree model whose cost is O(n⁶⁰/31+^ε), for any ε > 0. Our approach is based on a primal-dual range searching mechanism, which exploits the multi-level polynomial partitioning machinery recently developed by Agarwal, Aronov, Ezra, and Zahl (2020). A key step in the procedure is a variant of point location in arrangements, say of lines in the plane, which is based solely on the order type of the lines, a “handicap” that turns out to be beneficial for speeding up our algorithm.