Encoding Two-Dimensional Range Top-k Queries

We consider various encodings that support range top-k queries on a two-dimensional array containing elements from a total order. For an m x n array, we first propose an almost optimal encoding for answering one-sided top-k queries, whose query range is restricted to [1 ... m][1 .. a], for 1 <= a <= n. Next, we propose an encoding for the general top-k queries that takes m^2 * lg(binom((k+1)n)(n)) + m * lg(m) + o(n) bits. This generalizes the one-dimensional top-k encoding of Gawrychowski and Nicholson [ICALP, 2015]. Finally, for a 2 x n array, we obtain a 2 lg(binom(3n)(n)) + 3n + o(n)-bit encoding for answering top-2 queries.