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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38

Lower Bounds on Tree Covers

Authors: Yu Chen, Zihan Tan, and Hangyu Xu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

Given an n-point metric space (X,d_X), a tree cover 𝒯 is a set of |𝒯| = k trees on X such that every pair of vertices in X has a low-distortion path in one of the trees in 𝒯. Tree covers have been playing a crucial role in graph algorithms for decades, and the research focus is the construction of tree covers with small size k and distortion. When k = 1, the best distortion is known to be Θ(n). For a constant k ≥ 2, the best distortion upper bound is Õ(n^{1/k}) and the strongest lower bound is Ω(log_k n), leaving a gap to be closed. In this paper, we improve the lower bound to Ω(n^{1/(2^{k-1)}}). Our proof is a novel analysis on a structurally simple grid-like graph, which utilizes some combinatorial fixed-point theorems. We believe that they will prove useful for analyzing other tree-like data structures as well.

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Yu Chen, Zihan Tan, and Hangyu Xu. Lower Bounds on Tree Covers. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 38:1-38:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38,
  author =	{Chen, Yu and Tan, Zihan and Xu, Hangyu},
  title =	{{Lower Bounds on Tree Covers}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{38:1--38:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253254},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: Tree Covers, Combinatorial Fixed-Point Theorems}
}

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Lower Bounds on Tree Covers

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