Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications http://jgaa.info/ vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 221–241 (2003) Upward Embeddings and Orientations of Undirected Planar Graphs Walter Didimo Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettronica e dell’Informazione Universit`a di Perugia via G. Duranti 93, 06125 Perugia, Italy. http://www.diei.unipg.it/~didimo/
[email protected] Maurizio Pizzonia Dipartimento di Informatica e Automazione Universit`a di Roma Tre via della Vasca Navale 79, 00146 Roma, Italy. http://www.dia.uniroma3.it/~pizzonia/
[email protected] Abstract An upward embedding of an embedded planar graph specifies, for each vertex v, which edges are incident on v “above” or “below” and, in turn, induces an upward orientation of the edges from bottom to top. In this paper we characterize the set of all upward embeddings and orientations of an embedded planar graph by using a simple flow model, which is re- lated to that described by Bousset [3] to characterize bipolar orientations. We take advantage of such a flow model to compute upward orientations with the minimum number of sources and sinks of 1-connected embedded planar graphs. We finally devise a new algorithm for computing visibility representations of 1-connected planar graphs using our theoretic results. Communicated by Giuseppe Liotta and Ioannis G. Tollis: submitted October 2001; revised April 2002. Research partially supported by “Progetto ALINWEB: Algoritmica per Internet e per il Web”, MIUR Programmi di Ricerca Scientifica di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale. W. Didimo and M. Pizzonia, Upward Embeddings, JGAA, 7(2) 221–241 (2003)222 1 Introduction Let G be an undirected planar graph with a given planar embedding.