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A Faster Directed Single-Source Shortest Path Algorithm

Authors Ran Duan , Xiao Mao , Xinkai Shu , Longhui Yin

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LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.81.pdf
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Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Theory of computation → Shortest paths
  • Theory of computation → Data structures design and analysis
Keywords
  • Shortest Paths
  • Graph Algorithms

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Abstract

This paper presents a new deterministic algorithm for the single-source shortest paths (SSSP) problem on real non-negative edge-weighted directed graphs, with running time O(m√{log n} + √{mnlog nlog log n}), which is O(m√{log nlog log n}) for sparse graphs. This improves the recent breakthrough result of O(m log^{2/3} n) time for directed SSSP algorithm [Duan, Mao, Mao, Shu, Yin 2025].

Cite As Get BibTex

Ran Duan, Xiao Mao, Xinkai Shu, and Longhui Yin. A Faster Directed Single-Source Shortest Path Algorithm. In 53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 374, pp. 81:1-81:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026) https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.81

Author Details

Ran Duan
  • Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Xiao Mao
  • Stanford University, CA, USA
Xinkai Shu
  • Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany
Longhui Yin
  • Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Funding

Ran Duan is supported by a grant from Turing AI institute of Nanjing. This work has been supported by the New Cornerstone Science Foundation.

References

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