A (2 - c log/n) approximation algorithm for the minimum maximal matching problem

Zvi Gotthilf, Moshe Lewenstein, Elad Rainshmidt

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

We consider the problem of finding a maximal matching of minimum size, given an unweighted general graph. This problem is a well studied and it is known to be NP-hard even for some restricted classes of graphs. Moreover, in case of general graphs, it is NP-hard to approximate the Minimum Maximal Matching (shortly MMM) within any constant factor smaller than . The current best known approximation algorithm is the straightforward algorithm which yields an approximation ratio of 2. We propose the first nontrivial algorithm yields an approximation ratio of , for an arbitrarily positive constant c. Our algorithm is based on the local search technique and utilizes an approximate solution of the Minimum Weighted Maximal Matching problem in order to achieve the desirable approximation ratio.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)267-278
Number of pages12
JournalLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume5426 LNCS
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Event6th International Workshop on Approximation and Online Algorithms, WAOA 2008 - Karlsruhe, Germany
Duration: 18 Sep 200819 Sep 2008

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