Point Location in Disconnected Planar Subdivisions

Abstract: Let $G$ be a (possibly disconnected) planar subdivision and let $D$ be a probability measure over $\R^2$. The current paper shows how to preprocess $(G,D)$ into an O(n) size data structure that can answer planar point location queries over $G$. The expected query time of this data structure, for a query point drawn according to $D$, is $O(H+1)$, where $H$ is a lower bound on the expected query time of any linear decision tree for point location in $G$. This extends the results of Collette et al (2008, 2009) from connected planar subdivisions to disconnected planar subdivisions. A version of this structure, when combined with existing results on succinct point location, provides a succinct distribution-sensitive point location structure.