Greedy Algorithms

Author(s):  
Raymond Greenlaw ◽  
H. James Hoover ◽  
Walter L. Ruzzo

We consider the selection of two basketball teams at a neighborhood playground to illustrate the greedy method. Usually the top two players are designated captains. All other players line up while the captains alternate choosing one player at a time. Usually, the players are picked using a greedy strategy. That is, the captains choose the best unclaimed player. The system of selection of choosing the best, most obvious, or most convenient remaining candidate is called the greedy method. Greedy algorithms often lead to easily implemented efficient sequential solutions to problems. Unfortunately, it also seems to be that sequential greedy algorithms frequently lead to solutions that are inherently sequential — the solutions produced by these algorithms cannot be duplicated rapidly in parallel, unless NC equals P. In the following subsections we will examine this phenomenon. We illustrate some of the important aspects of greedy algorithms using one that constructs a maximal independent set in a graph. An independent set is a set of vertices of a graph that are pairwise nonadjacent. A maximum independent set is such a set of largest cardinality. It is well known that finding maximum independent sets is NP-hard. An independent set is maximal if no other vertex can be added while maintaining the independent set property. In contrast to the maximum case, finding maxima? independent sets is very easy. Figure 7.1.1 depicts a simple polynomial time sequential algorithm computing a maximal independent set. The algorithm is a greedy algorithm: it processes the vertices in numerical order, always attempting to add the lowest numbered vertex that has not yet been tried. The sequential algorithm in Figure 7.1.1, having processed vertices 1,... , j -1, can easily decide whether to include vertex j. However, notice that its decision about j potentially depends on its decisions about all earlier vertices — j will be included in the maximal independent set if and only if all j' less than j and adjacent to it were excluded.

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (04) ◽  
pp. 253-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. BOROS ◽  
V. GURVICH ◽  
K. ELBASSIONI ◽  
L. KHACHIYAN

We show that for hypergraphs of bounded edge size, the problem of extending a given list of maximal independent sets is NC-reducible to the computation of an arbitrary maximal independent set for an induced sub-hypergraph. The latter problem is known to be in RNC. In particular, our reduction yields an incremental RNC dualization algorithm for hypergraphs of bounded edge size, a problem previously known to be solvable in polynomial incremental time. We also give a similar parallel algorithm for the dualization problem on the product of arbitrary lattices which have a bounded number of immediate predecessors for each element.


2013 ◽  
Vol Vol. 15 no. 2 (Graph Theory) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuchao Li ◽  
Huihui Zhang ◽  
Xiaoyan Zhang

Graph Theory International audience A maximal independent set is an independent set that is not a proper subset of any other independent set. Liu [J.Q. Liu, Maximal independent sets of bipartite graphs, J. Graph Theory, 17 (4) (1993) 495-507] determined the largest number of maximal independent sets among all n-vertex bipartite graphs. The corresponding extremal graphs are forests. It is natural and interesting for us to consider this problem on bipartite graphs with cycles. Let \mathscrBₙ (resp. \mathscrBₙ') be the set of all n-vertex bipartite graphs with at least one cycle for even (resp. odd) n. In this paper, the largest number of maximal independent sets of graphs in \mathscrBₙ (resp. \mathscrBₙ') is considered. Among \mathscrBₙ the disconnected graphs with the first-, second-, \ldots, \fracn-22-th largest number of maximal independent sets are characterized, while the connected graphs in \mathscrBₙ having the largest, the second largest number of maximal independent sets are determined. Among \mathscrBₙ' graphs have the largest number of maximal independent sets are identified.


Author(s):  
Vyacheslav Korolyov ◽  
Oleksandr Khodzinskyi

Introduction. Quantum computers provide several times faster solutions to several NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems in comparison with computing clusters. The trend of doubling the number of qubits of quantum computers every year suggests the existence of an analog of Moore's law for quantum computers, which means that soon they will also be able to get a significant acceleration of solving many applied large-scale problems. The purpose of the article is to review methods for creating algorithms of quantum computer mathematics for combinatorial optimization problems and to analyze the influence of the qubit-to-qubit coupling and connections strength on the performance of quantum data processing. Results. The article offers approaches to the classification of algorithms for solving these problems from the perspective of quantum computer mathematics. It is shown that the number and strength of connections between qubits affect the dimensionality of problems solved by algorithms of quantum computer mathematics. It is proposed to consider two approaches to calculating combinatorial optimization problems on quantum computers: universal, using quantum gates, and specialized, based on a parameterization of physical processes. Examples of constructing a half-adder for two qubits of an IBM quantum processor and an example of solving the problem of finding the maximum independent set for the IBM and D-wave quantum computers are given. Conclusions. Today, quantum computers are available online through cloud services for research and commercial use. At present, quantum processors do not have enough qubits to replace semiconductor computers in universal computing. The search for a solution to a combinatorial optimization problem is performed by achieving the minimum energy of the system of coupled qubits, on which the task is mapped, and the data are the initial conditions. Approaches to solving combinatorial optimization problems on quantum computers are considered and the results of solving the problem of finding the maximum independent set on the IBM and D-wave quantum computers are given. Keywords: quantum computer, quantum computer mathematics, qubit, maximal independent set for a graph.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (01) ◽  
pp. 93-114
Author(s):  
Vadim E. Levit ◽  
David Tankus

A graph [Formula: see text] is well-covered if all its maximal independent sets are of the same cardinality. Assume that a weight function [Formula: see text] is defined on its vertices. Then [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]well-covered if all maximal independent sets are of the same weight. For every graph [Formula: see text], the set of weight functions [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]-well-covered is a vector space, denoted as WCW(G). Deciding whether an input graph [Formula: see text] is well-covered is co-NP-complete. Therefore, finding WCW(G) is co-NP-hard. A generating subgraph of a graph [Formula: see text] is an induced complete bipartite subgraph [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] on vertex sets of bipartition [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], such that each of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] is a maximal independent set of [Formula: see text], for some independent set [Formula: see text]. If [Formula: see text] is generating, then [Formula: see text] for every weight function [Formula: see text]. Therefore, generating subgraphs play an important role in finding WCW(G). The decision problem whether a subgraph of an input graph is generating is known to be NP-complete. In this article we prove NP- completeness of the problem for graphs without cycles of length 3 and 5, and for bipartite graphs with girth at least 6. On the other hand, we supply polynomial algorithms for recognizing generating subgraphs and finding WCW(G), when the input graph is bipartite without cycles of length 6. We also present a polynomial algorithm which finds WCW(G) when [Formula: see text] does not contain cycles of lengths 3, 4, 5, and 7.


2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Alkida Balliu ◽  
Sebastian Brandt ◽  
Juho Hirvonen ◽  
Dennis Olivetti ◽  
Mikaël Rabie ◽  
...  

There are distributed graph algorithms for finding maximal matchings and maximal independent sets in O ( Δ + log * n ) communication rounds; here, n is the number of nodes and Δ is the maximum degree. The lower bound by Linial (1987, 1992) shows that the dependency on n is optimal: These problems cannot be solved in o (log * n ) rounds even if Δ = 2. However, the dependency on Δ is a long-standing open question, and there is currently an exponential gap between the upper and lower bounds. We prove that the upper bounds are tight. We show that any algorithm that finds a maximal matching or maximal independent set with probability at least 1-1/ n requires Ω (min { Δ , log log n / log log log n }) rounds in the LOCAL model of distributed computing. As a corollary, it follows that any deterministic algorithm that finds a maximal matching or maximal independent set requires Ω (min { Δ , log n / log log n }) rounds; this is an improvement over prior lower bounds also as a function of  n .


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (04) ◽  
pp. 2050011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zain Hamid Saleem

The maximum-independent set (MIS) problem of graph theory using the quantum alternating operator ansatz is studied. We perform simulations on the Rigetti Forest simulator for the square ring, [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] graphs and analyze the dependence of the algorithm on the depth of the circuit and initial states. The probability distribution of observation of the feasible states representing maximum-independent sets is observed to be asymmetric for the MIS problem, which is unlike the Max-Cut problem where the probability distribution of feasible states is symmetric. For asymmetric graphs, it is shown that the algorithm clearly favors the independent set with the larger number of elements even for finite circuit depth. We also compare the approximation ratios for the algorithm when we choose different initial states for the square ring graph and show that it is dependent on the choice of the initial state.


2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-288
Author(s):  
VADIM E. LEVIT ◽  
◽  
EUGEN MANDRESCU ◽  

A graph with at most two vertices of the same degree is known as antiregular [ Merris, R., Antiregular graphs are universal for trees, Publ. Electrotehn. Fak. Univ. Beograd, Ser. Mat. 14 (2003) 1-3], maximally nonregular [Zykov, A. A., Fundamentals of graph theory, BCS Associates, Moscow, 1990] or quasiperfect [ Behzad, M. and Chartrand, D. M., No graph is perfect, Amer. Math. Monthly 74 (1967), 962-963]. If sk is the number of independent sets of cardinality k in a graph G, then I(G; x) = s0 +s1x+...+sαx α is the independence polynomial of G [ Gutman, I. and Harary, F., Generalizations of the matching polynomial, Utilitas Mathematica 24 (1983), 97-106] , where α = α(G) is the size of a maximum independent set. In this paper we derive closed formulas for the independence polynomials of antiregular graphs. It results in proving that every antiregular graph is uniquely defined by its independence polynomial within the family of threshold graphs. Moreover, the independence polynomial of each antiregular graph is log-concave, it has two real roots at most, and its value at −1 belongs to {−1, 0}.


Author(s):  
Syed Aqib Haider

<p>Greedy algorithms are used in solving a diverse set of problems in small computation time. However, for solving problems using greedy approach, it must be proved that the greedy strategy applies. The greedy approach relies on selection of optimal choice at a local level reducing the problem to a single sub problem, which actually leads to a globally optimal solution. Finding a maximal set from the independent set of a matroid M(S, I) also uses greedy approach and justification is also provided in standard literature (e.g. Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et .al.). However, the justification does not clearly explain the equivalence of using greedy algorithm and contraction of M by the selected element. This paper thus attempts to give a lucid explanation of the fact that the greedy algorithm is equivalent to reducing the Matroid into its contraction by selected element. This approach also provides motivation for research on the selection of the test used in algorithm which might lead to smaller computation time of the algorithm.</p>


10.37236/8530 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Kahn ◽  
Jinyoung Park

Answering questions of Y. Rabinovich, we prove "stability" versions of upper bounds on maximal independent set counts in graphs under various restrictions. Roughly these say that being close to the maximum implies existence of a large induced matching or triangle matching (depending on assumptions). A mild strengthening of one of these results is a key ingredient in a proof (to appear elsewhere) of a conjecture of L. Ilinca and the first author giving asymptotics for the number of maximal independent sets in the graph of the Hamming cube.


2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID GAMARNIK ◽  
DAVID A. GOLDBERG

We derive new results for the performance of a simple greedy algorithm for finding large independent sets and matchings in constant-degree regular graphs. We show that forr-regular graphs withnnodes and girth at leastg, the algorithm finds an independent set of expected cardinalitywheref(r) is a function which we explicitly compute. A similar result is established for matchings. Our results imply improved bounds for the size of the largest independent set in these graphs, and provide the first results of this type for matchings. As an implication we show that the greedy algorithm returns a nearly perfect matching when both the degreerand girthgare large. Furthermore, we show that the cardinality of independent sets and matchings produced by the greedy algorithm inarbitrarybounded-degree graphs is concentrated around the mean. Finally, we analyse the performance of the greedy algorithm for the case of random i.i.d. weighted independent sets and matchings, and obtain a remarkably simple expression for the limiting expected values produced by the algorithm. In fact, all the other results are obtained as straightforward corollaries from the results for the weighted case.


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