Compatible Triangulations of Simple Polygons
cstheory.com
March 3, 2026
Authors: Peyman Afshani, Boris Aronov, Kevin Buchin, Maike Buchin, Otfried Cheong, Katharina Klost, Carolin Rehs, Günter Rote
Let $P$ and $Q$ be simple polygons with $n$ vertices each. We wish to compute triangulations of $P$ and $Q$ that are combinatorially equivalent, if they exist. We consider two versions of the problem: if a triangulation of $P$ is given, we can decide in $O(n\log n + nr)$ time if $Q$ has a compatible triangulation, where $r$ is the number of reflex vertices of $Q$. If we are already given the correspondence between vertices of $P$ and $Q$ (but no triangulation), we can find compatible triangulations of $P$ and $Q$ in time $O(M(n))$, where $M(n)$ is the running time for multiplying two $n\times n$ matrices.
Discussion in the ATmosphere