On growing connected beta-skeletons

Abstract: A $\beta$-skeleton, $\beta \geq 1$, is a planar proximity undirected graph of an Euclidean points set, where nodes are connected by an edge if their lune-based neighbourhood contains no other points of the given set. Parameter $\beta$ determines the size and shape of the lune-based neighbourhood. A $\beta$-skeleton of a random planar set is usually a disconnected graph for $\beta>2$. With the increase of $\beta$, the number of edges in the $\beta$-skeleton of a random graph decreases. We show how to grow stable $\beta$-skeletons, which are connected for any given value of $\beta$ and characterise morphological transformations of the skeletons governed by $\beta$ and a degree of approximation. We speculate how the results obtained can be applied in biology and chemistry.