Approximating the Volume of Unions and Intersections of High-Dimensional Geometric Objects

  • Authors:
  • Karl Bringmann;Tobias Friedrich

  • Affiliations:
  • Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany;Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik, Saarbrücken, Germany and International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, USA

  • Venue:
  • ISAAC '08 Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

We consider the computation of the volume of the union ofhigh-dimensional geometric objects. While showing that this problemis #P-hard already for very simple bodies (i.e.,axis-parallel boxes), we give a fast FPRAS for all objects whereone can: (1) test whether a given point lies inside the object, (2)sample a point uniformly, (3) calculate the volume of the object inpolynomial time. All three oracles can be weak, that is, justapproximate. This implies that Klee's measure problem and thehypervolume indicator can be approximated efficiently even thoughthey are #P-hard and hence cannot be solved exactly in timepolynomial in the number of dimensions unless P = NP.Our algorithm also allows to approximate efficiently the volume ofthe union of convex bodies given by weak membership oracles.For the analogous problem of the intersection ofhigh-dimensional geometric objects we prove #P-hardness forboxes and show that there is no multiplicative polynomial-time2d1-z-approximation for certainboxes unless NP=BPP, but give a simple additivepolynomial-time ε-approximation.