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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2022.53

Approximation Algorithms for Covering Vertices by Long Paths

Authors: Mingyang Gong, Jing Fan, Guohui Lin, and Eiji Miyano

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 241, 47th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2022)

Abstract

Given a graph, the general problem to cover the maximum number of vertices by a collection of vertex-disjoint long paths seemingly escapes from the literature. A path containing at least k vertices is considered long. When k ≤ 3, the problem is polynomial time solvable; when k is the total number of vertices, the problem reduces to the Hamiltonian path problem, which is NP-complete. For a fixed k ≥ 4, the problem is NP-hard and the best known approximation algorithm for the weighted set packing problem implies a k-approximation algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, there is no approximation algorithm directly designed for the general problem; when k = 4, the problem admits a 4-approximation algorithm which was presented recently. We propose the first (0.4394 k + O(1))-approximation algorithm for the general problem and an improved 2-approximation algorithm when k = 4. Both algorithms are based on local improvement, and their performance analyses are done via amortization.

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Mingyang Gong, Jing Fan, Guohui Lin, and Eiji Miyano. Approximation Algorithms for Covering Vertices by Long Paths. In 47th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 241, pp. 53:1-53:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{gong_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2022.53,
  author =	{Gong, Mingyang and Fan, Jing and Lin, Guohui and Miyano, Eiji},
  title =	{{Approximation Algorithms for Covering Vertices by Long Paths}},
  booktitle =	{47th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2022)},
  pages =	{53:1--53:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-256-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{241},
  editor =	{Szeider, Stefan and Ganian, Robert and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2022.53},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-168517},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2022.53},
  annote =	{Keywords: Path cover, k-path, local improvement, amortized analysis, approximation algorithm}
}

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Approximation Algorithms for Covering Vertices by Long Paths

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