Longest path problem is a problem for finding a longest path in a given graph. While the graph classes in which the Hamiltonian path problem can be solved efficiently are widely investigated, there are few known graph classes such that the longest path problem can be solved efficiently. Polynomial time algorithms for finding a longest cycle and a longest path in a Ptolemaic graph are proposed. Ptolemaic graphs are the graphs that satisfy the Ptolemy inequality, and they are the intersection of chordal graphs and distance-hereditary graphs. The algorithms use the dynamic programming technique on a laminar structure of cliques, which is a recent characterization of Ptolemaic graphs.

Arranging n points as uniformly as possible is a frequently occurring problem. It is equivalent to packing n equal and non-overlapping circles in a unit square. In this paper we generalize this problem in such a way that points are inserted one by one with uniformity preserved at every instance. Our criterion for uniformity is to minimize the gap ratio (which is the maximum gap over the minimum gap) at every point insertion. We present a linear time algorithm for finding an optimal n-point sequence with the maximum gap ratio bounded by in the 1-dimensional case. We describe how hard the same problem is for a point set in the plane and propose a local search heuristics for finding a good solution.