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Local Search: Heuristic For Vertex Cover

The document describes a heuristic algorithm for finding a minimum vertex cover of an undirected graph. The algorithm starts with an initial feasible solution containing all vertices. It then repeatedly finds a neighboring solution by adding or removing a single vertex that reduces the cost. This process continues until no lower cost neighbor can be found, reaching a local optimum. The algorithm provides an efficient polynomial time method but may get stuck in bad local optima on some graph instances.

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91 views5 pages

Local Search: Heuristic For Vertex Cover

The document describes a heuristic algorithm for finding a minimum vertex cover of an undirected graph. The algorithm starts with an initial feasible solution containing all vertices. It then repeatedly finds a neighboring solution by adding or removing a single vertex that reduces the cost. This process continues until no lower cost neighbor can be found, reaching a local optimum. The algorithm provides an efficient polynomial time method but may get stuck in bad local optima on some graph instances.

Uploaded by

ywakade
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Local Search

Heuristic for Vertex Cover

R. Inkulu
http://www.iitg.ac.in/rinkulu/

(Heuristic for Vertex Cover) 1/5


Problem

Given an undirected graph G(V, E), find a minimum cardinality C ⊆ V such


that for every edge e ∈ E one of its endpoints belongs to C.
• known to be a hard problem

(Heuristic for Vertex Cover) 2/5


Algorithm

(i) start with an initial feasible solution, say V whose cost is n


(ii) repeat the following
(a) find a neighbor of the current feasible solution whose cost is lowest among
all the neighbors and its cost is strictly lower as compared with the current
feasible solution cost
(b) break if such a feasible neighboring solution is not available (denotes
being at a local optima)

neighbor relation: adding or deleting a single node from the current feasible
solution

(Heuristic for Vertex Cover) 3/5


Observations related to neighbor relation

• each vertex cover has at most n neighboring solutions

• finding a neighbor with improved cost takes only polynomial time

(Heuristic for Vertex Cover) 4/5


Analysis

• successful for some instances, for example, consider a graph in which


every node is isolated

• could stuck in a bad local optima for some instances, for example,
consider a star graph

• hence, not an algorithm but could work as a nice heuristic

(Heuristic for Vertex Cover) 5/5

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