English

Minimum-cost matching in a random graph with random costs

Combinatorics 2015-11-19 v5

Abstract

Let Gn,pG_{n,p} be the standard Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi-Gilbert random graph and let Gn,n,pG_{n,n,p} be the random bipartite graph on n+nn+n vertices, where each e[n]2e\in [n]^2 appears as an edge independently with probability pp. For a graph G=(V,E)G=(V,E), suppose that each edge eEe\in E is given an independent uniform exponential rate one cost. Let C(G)C(G) denote the random variable equal to the length of the minimum cost perfect matching, assuming that GG contains at least one. We show that w.h.p. if d=np(logn)2d=np\gg(\log n)^2 then w.h.p. E[C(Gn,n,p)]=(1+o(1))\p26p{\bf E}[C(G_{n,n,p})] =(1+o(1))\frac{\p^2}{6p}. This generalises the well-known result for the case G=Kn,nG=K_{n,n}. We also show that w.h.p. E[C(Gn,p)]=(1+o(1))\p212p{\bf E}[C(G_{n,p})] =(1+o(1))\frac{\p^2}{12p} along with concentration results for both types of random graph.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1504.00312,
  title  = {Minimum-cost matching in a random graph with random costs},
  author = {Alan Frieze and Tony Johansson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.00312},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Replaces an earlier paper where $G$ was an arbitrary regular bipartite graph

R2 v1 2026-06-22T09:08:14.493Z