An Exact Algorithm for Minimum Vertex Cover Problem

Mathematics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 603
Author(s):  
Luzhi Wang ◽  
Shuli Hu ◽  
Mingyang Li ◽  
Junping Zhou

In this paper, we propose a branch-and-bound algorithm to solve exactly the minimum vertex cover (MVC) problem. Since a tight lower bound for MVC has a significant influence on the efficiency of a branch-and-bound algorithm, we define two novel lower bounds to help prune the search space. One is based on the degree of vertices, and the other is based on MaxSAT reasoning. The experiment confirms that our algorithm is faster than previous exact algorithms and can find better results than heuristic algorithms.

Author(s):  
Nihal Berktaş ◽  
Hande Yaman

This paper presents an exact algorithm for the team formation problem, in which the aim is, given a project and its required skills, to construct a capable team that can communicate and collaborate effectively. This combinatorial optimization problem is modeled as a quadratic set covering problem. The study provides a novel branch-and-bound algorithm where a reformulation of the problem is relaxed so that it decomposes into a series of linear set covering problems, and the relaxed constraints are imposed through branching. The algorithm is able to solve instances that are intractable for commercial solvers. The study illustrates an efficient usage of algorithmic methods and modeling techniques for an operations research problem. It contributes to the field of computational optimization by proposing a new application and a new algorithm to solve a quadratic version of a classical combinatorial optimization problem.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaogeng Chu ◽  
Yuning Chen ◽  
Lining Xing

The agile earth observing satellite scheduling (AEOSS) problem consists of scheduling a subset of images among a set of candidates that satisfy imperative constraints and maximize a gain function. In this paper, we consider a new AEOSS model which integrates a time-dependent temporal constraint. To solve this problem, we propose a highly efficient branch and bound algorithm whose effective ingredients include a look-ahead construction method (for generating a high quality initial lower bound) and a combined use of three pruning strategies (which help to prune a large portion of the search space). We conducted computational experiments on a set of test data that were generated with information from real-life scenarios. The results showed that the proposed algorithm is efficient enough for engineering application. In particular, it is able to solve instances with 55 targets to optimality within 164 seconds on average. Furthermore, we carried out additional experiments to analyze the contribution of each key algorithm ingredient.


Author(s):  
Hua Jiang ◽  
Dongming Zhu ◽  
Zhichao Xie ◽  
Shaowen Yao ◽  
Zhang-Hua Fu

Given an undirected graph, the Maximum k-plex Problem (MKP) is to find a largest induced subgraph in which each vertex has at most k−1 non-adjacent vertices. The problem arises in social network analysis and has found applications in many important areas employing graph-based data mining. Existing exact algorithms usually implement a branch-and-bound approach that requires a tight upper bound to reduce the search space. In this paper, we propose a new upper bound for MKP, which is a partitioning of the candidate vertex set with respect to the constructing solution. We implement a new branch-and-bound algorithm that employs the upper bound to reduce the number of branches. Experimental results show that the upper bound is very effective in reducing the search space. The new algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms significantly on real-world massive graphs, DIMACS graphs and random graphs.


2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remigijus Paulavičius ◽  
Julius Žilinskas

Many problems in economy may be formulated as global optimization problems. Most numerically promising methods for solution of multivariate unconstrained Lipschitz optimization problems of dimension greater than 2 use rectangular or simplicial branch‐and‐bound techniques with computationally cheap, but rather crude lower bounds. The proposed branch‐and‐bound algorithm with simplicial partitions for global optimization uses a combination of 2 types of Lipschitz bounds. One is an improved Lipschitz bound with the first norm. The other is a combination of simple bounds with different norms. The efficiency of the proposed global optimization algorithm is evaluated experimentally and compared with the results of other well‐known algorithms. The proposed algorithm often outperforms the comparable branch‐and‐bound algorithms. Santrauka Daug įvairių ekonomikos uždavinių yra formuluojami kaip globaliojo optimizavimo uždaviniai. Didžioji dalis Lipšico globaliojo optimizavimo metodų, tinkamų spręsti didesnės dimensijos, t. y. n > 2, uždavinius, naudoja stačiakampį arba simpleksinį šakų ir rėžių metodus bei paprastesnius rėžius. Šiame darbe pasiūlytas simpleksinis šakų ir rėžių algoritmas, naudojantis dviejų tipų viršutinių rėžių junginį. Pirmasis yra pagerintas rėžis su pirmąja norma, kitas – trijų paprastesnių rėžių su skirtingomis normomis junginys. Gautieji eksperimentiniai pasiūlyto algoritmo rezultatai yra palyginti su kitų gerai žinomų Lipšico optimizavimo algoritmų rezultatais.


2016 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 653-683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyuan Zhu ◽  
Changhe Yuan

Most Relevant Explanation (MRE) is an inference task in Bayesian networks that finds the most relevant partial instantiation of target variables as an explanation for given evidence by maximizing the Generalized Bayes Factor (GBF). No exact MRE algorithm has been developed previously except exhaustive search. This paper fills the void by introducing two Breadth-First Branch-and-Bound (BFBnB) algorithms for solving MRE based on novel upper bounds of GBF. One upper bound is created by decomposing the computation of GBF using a target blanket decomposition of evidence variables. The other upper bound improves the first bound in two ways. One is to split the target blankets that are too large by converting auxiliary nodes into pseudo-targets so as to scale to large problems. The other is to perform summations instead of maximizations on some of the target variables in each target blanket. Our empirical evaluations show that the proposed BFBnB algorithms make exact MRE inference tractable in Bayesian networks that could not be solved previously.


2015 ◽  
Vol 07 (03) ◽  
pp. 1550032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah N. Arslan ◽  
Betsy George ◽  
Kirsten Stor

The pattern matching with wildcards and length constraints problem is an interesting problem in the literature whose computational complexity is still open. There are polynomial time exact algorithms for its special cases. There are heuristic algorithms, and online algorithms that do not guarantee an optimal solution to the original problem. We consider two special cases of the problem for which we develop offline solutions. We give an algorithm for one case with provably better worst case time complexity compared to existing algorithms. We present the first exact algorithm for the second case. This algorithm uses integer linear programming (ILP) and it takes polynomial time under certain conditions.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document