Lucas Meijer ; Tillmann Miltzow - Sometimes Two Irrational Guards are Needed

dmtcs:11563 - Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science, March 16, 2026, vol. 28:2 - https://doi.org/10.46298/dmtcs.11563
Sometimes Two Irrational Guards are NeededArticle

Authors: Lucas Meijer ; Tillmann Miltzow

    In the art gallery problem, we are given a closed polygon $P$, with rational coordinates and an integer $k$. We are asked whether it is possible to find a set (of guards) $G$ of size $k$ such that any point $p\in P$ is seen by a point in $G$. We say two points $p$, $q$ see each other if the line segment $pq$ is contained inside $P$. It was shown by Abrahamsen, Adamaszek, and Miltzow that there is a polygon that can be guarded with three guards, but requires four guards if the guards are required to have rational coordinates. In other words, an optimal solution of size three might need to be irrational. We show that an optimal solution of size two might need to be irrational. Note that it is well-known that any polygon that can be guarded with one guard has an optimal guard placement with rational coordinates. Hence, our work closes the gap on when irrational guards are possible to occur.

    24 pages, 13 figures


    Volume: vol. 28:2
    Section: Automata, Logic and Semantics
    Published on: March 16, 2026
    Accepted on: January 21, 2026
    Submitted on: July 10, 2023
    Keywords: Computational Geometry