English

Max-Leaves Spanning Tree is APX-hard for Cubic Graphs

Discrete Mathematics 2009-12-02 v1 Computational Complexity Data Structures and Algorithms

Abstract

We consider the problem of finding a spanning tree with maximum number of leaves (MaxLeaf). A 2-approximation algorithm is known for this problem, and a 3/2-approximation algorithm when restricted to graphs where every vertex has degree 3 (cubic graphs). MaxLeaf is known to be APX-hard in general, and NP-hard for cubic graphs. We show that the problem is also APX-hard for cubic graphs. The APX-hardness of the related problem Minimum Connected Dominating Set for cubic graphs follows.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0912.0226,
  title  = {Max-Leaves Spanning Tree is APX-hard for Cubic Graphs},
  author = {Paul Bonsma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0912.0226},
  year   = {2009}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T14:18:19.871Z