Flipping Plane Spanning Paths

02/22/2022

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by   Oswin Aichholzer, et al.

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Let S be a planar point set in general position, and let 𝒫(S) be the set of all plane straight-line paths with vertex set S. A flip on a path P ∈𝒫(S) is the operation of replacing an edge e of P with another edge f on S to obtain a new valid path from 𝒫(S). It is a long-standing open question whether for every given planar point set S, every path from 𝒫(S) can be transformed into any other path from 𝒫(S) by a sequence of flips. To achieve a better understanding of this question, we provide positive answers for special classes of point sets, namely, for wheel sets, ice cream cones, double chains, and double circles. Moreover, we show for general point sets, it is sufficient to prove the statement for plane spanning paths whose first edge is fixed.