Faster core-set constructions and data-stream algorithms in fixed dimensions

We speed up previous (1+ε)-factor approximation algorithms for a number of geometric optimization problems in fixed dimensions: diameter, width, minimum-radius enclosing cylinder, minimum-width enclosing annulus, minimum-width enclosing cylindrical shell, etc. Linear time bounds were known before; we further improve the dependence of the “constants” in terms of ε.We next consider the data-stream model and present new (1+ε)-factor approximation algorithms that need only constant space for all of the above problems in any fixed dimension. Previously, such a result was known only for diameter.Both sets of results are obtained using the core-set framework recently proposed by Agarwal, Har-Peled, and Varadarajan.