Retroactive Monotonic Priority Queues via Range Searching
For researchers in data structures, this resolves the open problem of achieving optimal retroactive performance for monotonic priority queues, though it is restricted to the monotonic variant.
The paper achieves optimal O(log m) time per operation and O(m) space for fully retroactive monotonic priority queues, matching the bounds of standard priority queues, by reducing the problem to range searching.
The best-known fully retroactive priority queue costs $O(\log^2 m \log \log m)$ time per operation and uses $O(m \log m)$ space, where $m$ is the number of operations performed on the data structure. In contrast, standard (non-retroactive) priority queues can cost $O(\log m)$ time per operation and use $O(m)$ space. So far, it remains open whether these bounds can be achieved for fully retroactive priority queues. In this work, we study a restricted variant of priority queues known as monotonic priority queues. First, we show that finding the minimum in a retroactive monotonic priority queue is a special case of the range-searching problem. Then, we design a fully retroactive monotonic priority queue that costs $O(\log m)$ time per operation and uses $O(m)$ space, achieving the same bounds as a standard priority queue.