English

On improving the approximation ratio of the r-shortest common superstring problem

Data Structures and Algorithms 2018-05-02 v1

Abstract

The Shortest Common Superstring problem (SCS) consists, for a set of strings S = {s_1,...,s_n}, in finding a minimum length string that contains all s_i, 1<= i <= n, as substrings. While a 2+11/30 approximation ratio algorithm has recently been published, the general objective is now to break the conceptual lower bound barrier of 2. This paper is a step ahead in this direction. Here we focus on a particular instance of the SCS problem, meaning the r-SCS problem, which requires all input strings to be of the same length, r. Golonev et al. proved an approximation ratio which is better than the general one for r<= 6. Here we extend their approach and improve their approximation ratio, which is now better than the general one for r<= 7, and less than or equal to 2 up to r = 6.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1805.00060,
  title  = {On improving the approximation ratio of the r-shortest common superstring problem},
  author = {Tristan Braquelaire and Marie Gasparoux and Mathieu Raffinot and Raluca Uricaru},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.00060},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:40:37.730Z