English

Approximation Algorithm for Unrooted Prize-Collecting Forest with Multiple Components and Its Application on Prize-Collecting Sweep Coverage

Data Structures and Algorithms 2023-10-31 v2 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a polynomial-time 2-approximation algorithm for the Unrooted Prize-Collecting Forest with KK Components (URPCFK_K) problem. URPCFK_K aims to find a forest with exactly KK connected components while minimizing both the forest's weight and the penalties incurred by unspanned vertices. Unlike the rooted version RPCFK_K, where a 2-approximation algorithm exists, solving the unrooted version by guessing roots leads to exponential time complexity for non-constant KK. To address this challenge, we propose a rootless growing and rootless pruning algorithm. We also apply this algorithm to improve the approximation ratio for the Prize-Collecting Min-Sensor Sweep Cover problem (PCMinSSC) from 8 to 5. Keywords: approximation algorithm, prize-collecting Steiner forest, sweep cover.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2306.13996,
  title  = {Approximation Algorithm for Unrooted Prize-Collecting Forest with Multiple Components and Its Application on Prize-Collecting Sweep Coverage},
  author = {Wei Liang and Shaojie Tang and Zhao Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.13996},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:13:30.888Z