Parallel Computation of Alpha Complex for Biomolecules
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Alpha complex, a subset of the Delaunay triangulation, has been extensively used as the underlying representation for biomolecular structures. We propose a GPU based parallel algorithm for the computation of the alpha complex, which exploits the knowledge of typical spatial distribution and sizes of atoms in a biomolecule. Unlike existing methods, this algorithm does not require prior construction of the Delaunay triangulation. The algorithm computes the alpha complex in two stages. The first stage proceeds in a bottom up fashion and computes a superset of the edges, triangles, and tetrahedra belonging to the alpha complex. The false positives from this estimation stage are removed in a subsequent pruning stage to obtain the correct alpha complex. Computational experiments on several biomolecules demonstrate the superior performance of the algorithm, upto 50x when compared to existing methods that are optimized for biomolecules.
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