浙江大学 算法与程序设计 Approximation Algorithm.pptVIP

Approximation Algorithm Instructor: yedeshi yedeshi@zju.edu.cn Dealing with Hard Problems What to do if: Divide and conquer Dynamic programming Greedy Linear Programming/Network Flows … does not give a polynomial time algorithm? Dealing with Hard Problems Solution I: Ignore the problem Can’t do it ! There are thousands of problems for which we do not know polynomial time algorithms For example: Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) Set Cover Traveling Salesman Problem Traveling SalesmanProblem (TSP) Input: undirected graph with lengths on edges Output: shortest cycle that visits each vertex exactly once Best known algorithm: O(n 2n) time. The vertex-cover problem A vertex cover of an undirected graph G = (V, E) is a subset V ? V such that if (u, v) ∈ E, then u ∈ V or v ∈ V (or both). A vertex cover for G is a set of vertices that covers all the edges in E. As a decision problem, we define VERTEX-COVER = {〈G, k〉 : graph G has a vertex cover of size k}. Best known algorithm: O(kn + 1.274k) Dealing with Hard Problems Exponential time algorithms for small inputs. E.g., (100/99)n time is not bad for n 1000. Polynomial time algorithms for some (e.g., average-case) inputs Polynomial time algorithms for all inputs, but which return approximate solutions Approximation Algorithms An algorithm A is ρ-approximate, if, on any inputof size n: The cost CA of the solution produced by thealgorithm, and The cost COPT of the optimal solution are such that CA ≤ ρ COPT We will see: 2-approximation algorithm for TSP in the plane 2-approximation algorithm for Vertex Cover Comments on Approximation “CA ≤ ρ COPT ” makes sense only for minimization problems For maximization problems, replace by COPT ≤ ρ CA Additive approximation “CA ≤ ρ + COPT “ also makes sense, although difficult to achieve The Vertex-cover problem The vertex-cover problem A vertex cover of an undirected graph G = (V, E) i