Approximate unions of lines and minkowski sums

We study the complexity of, and algorithms to construct, approximations of the union of lines and of the Minkowski sum of two simple polygons. We also studythick unions of lines and Minkowski sums, which are inflated with a small disc. Letb=D/ɛ be the ratio of the diameter of the region of interest and the maximum distance (or error) of the approximation. An approximate union of lines or Minkowski sum has complexity Θ (b ²) in the worst case. The thick union ofn lines has complexity Ω(n+b ²) andO(n +b√bn), and thick Minkowski sums have complexity Ω(n ²+b²) andO((n+b)n√blogn+n ² logn) in the worst case. We present algorithms that run inO(n+n ^2/3+δ b ^4/3 andO(min(bn,n ^4/3+δ b ^2/3)) time (any δ>0) for approximate and thick arrangements. For approximate Minkowski sums, the running time isO(min(b ² n,n ² +b ² + (nb)^4/3+δ); thick Minkowski sums takeO(n ^8/3+δ b ^2/3) time to compute.