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The Greedier the Better: An Efficient Algorithm for Approximating Maximum Independent Set

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Computing and Combinatorics (COCOON 1999)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1627))

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Abstract

The classical greedy heuristic for approximating maximum independent set is simple and efficient. It achieves a performance ratio bound of (Δ + 2)/3, where Δ is the degree of the input graph. All known algorithms for the problem with better ratio bounds are complicated and run slowly for moderately large Δ. In this paper, we describe a natural extension of the greedy heuristic. It is as simple and as efficient as the classical greedy heuristic. By a careful analysis on the structure of the intermediate graphs manipulated by our heuristic, we prove that the ratio bound is improved to (Δ + 3)/3:25.

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Lau, H.Y., Ting, H.F. (1999). The Greedier the Better: An Efficient Algorithm for Approximating Maximum Independent Set. In: Asano, T., Imai, H., Lee, D.T., Nakano, Si., Tokuyama, T. (eds) Computing and Combinatorics. COCOON 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1627. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48686-0_48

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48686-0_48

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-66200-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48686-2

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