We investigate the problem of constructing planar drawings with few bends for two related problems, the partially embedded graph problem---to extend a straight-line planar drawing of a subgraph to a planar drawing of the whole graph---and the simultaneous planarity problem---to find planar drawings of two graphs that coincide on shared vertices and edges. In both cases we show that if the required planar drawings exist, then there are planar drawings with a linear number of bends per edge and, in the case of simultaneous planarity, a constant number of crossings between every pair of edges. Our proofs provide efficient algorithms if the combinatorial embedding of the drawing is given. Our result on partially embedded graph drawing generalizes a classic result by Pach and Wenger which shows that any planar graph can be drawn with a linear number of bends per edge if the location of each vertex is fixed.
The simultaneous embedding problem is, given two planar graphs G1=(V,E1) and G2=(V,E2), to find planar embeddings ϕ(G1) and ϕ(G2) such that each vertex v∈V is mapped to the same point in ϕ(G1) and in ϕ(G2). This article presents a linear-time algorithm for the simultaneous embedding problem such that edges are drawn as polygonal chains with at most two bends and all vertices and all bends of the edges are placed on a grid of polynomial size. An extension of this problem with so-called fixed edges is also considered A further linear-time algorithm of this article solves the following problem: Given a planar graph G and a set of distinct points, find a planar embedding for G that maps each vertex to one of the given points. The solution presented also uses at most two bends per edge and a grid whose size is polynomial in the size of the grid that includes all given points. An example shows two bends per edge to be optimal Let G1 and G2 be two planar graphs having some vertices in common. A simultaneous embedding of G1 and G2 is a pair of crossing-free drawings of G1 and G2 such that each vertex in common is represented by the same point in both drawings. In this paper we show that an outerplanar graph and a simple path can be simultaneously embedded with fixed edges such that the edges in common are straight-line segments while the other edges of the outerplanar graph can have at most one bend per edge. We then exploit the technique for outerplanar graphs and paths to study simultaneous embeddings of other pairs of graphs. Namely, we study simultaneous embedding with fixed edges of: (i) two outerplanar graphs sharing a forest of paths and (ii) an outerplanar graph and a cycle. A new and distinct cultivar of Impatiens plant named Merengue, characterized by its large, light pink flowers with dark red-purple eye at base of pet als; compact growth habit, excellent self-branching, dark green leaves infused with purple, pleasantly contrasting foliage and flower colors, floriferous habit, and its suitability for use both as a bedding plant and in its hanging basket culture. 