Fully Dynamic Maximum Independent Sets of Disks in Polylogarithmic Update Time

A fundamental question is whether one can maintain a maximum independent set (MIS) in polylogarithmic update time for a dynamic collection of geometric objects in Euclidean space. For a set of intervals, it is known that no dynamic algorithm can maintain an exact MIS in sublinear update time. Therefore, the typical objective is to explore the trade-off between update time and solution size. Substantial efforts have been made in recent years to understand this question for various families of geometric objects, such as intervals, hypercubes, hyperrectangles, and fat objects.
We present the first fully dynamic approximation algorithm for disks of arbitrary radii in the plane that maintains a constant-factor approximate MIS in polylogarithmic expected amortized update time. Moreover, for a fully dynamic set of n unit disks in the plane, we show that a 12-approximate MIS can be maintained with worst-case update time O(log n), and optimal output-sensitive reporting.