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A 3/2-Approximation Algorithm for General Stable Marriage

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Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 5555))

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Abstract

In an instance of the stable marriage problem with ties and incomplete preference lists, stable matchings can have different sizes. It is APX-hard to compute a maximum cardinality stable matching, but there have recently been proposed polynomial-time approximation algorithms, with constant performance guarantees for both the general version of this problem, and for several special cases. Our contribution is to describe a \(\frac{3}{2}\)-approximation algorithm for the general version of this problem, improving upon the recent \(\frac{5}{3}\)-approximation algorithm of Király. Interest in such algorithms arises because of the problem’s application to centralized matching schemes, the best known of which involve the assignment of graduating medical students to hospitals in various countries.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK

    Eric McDermid

Authors
  1. Eric McDermid
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Freiburg, Georges Köhler Allee 79, 79110, Freiburg, Germany

    Susanne Albers

  2. Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Ariosto 25, 00184, Roma, Italy

    Alberto Marchetti-Spaccamela

  3. Google R&D Center, School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Yossi Matias

  4. University of Patras and CTI, N. Kazantzaki Street 1, 26504 Rion, Patras, Greece

    Sotiris Nikoletseas

  5. RWTH Aachen, Lehrstuhl Informatik 7, Ahornstraße 55, 52056, Aachen, Germany

    Wolfgang Thomas

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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McDermid, E. (2009). A 3/2-Approximation Algorithm for General Stable Marriage. In: Albers, S., Marchetti-Spaccamela, A., Matias, Y., Nikoletseas, S., Thomas, W. (eds) Automata, Languages and Programming. ICALP 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5555. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02927-1_57

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02927-1_57

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-02926-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-02927-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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