Extension of the nemhauser and trotter theorem to generalized vertex cover with applications

  • Authors:
  • Reuven Bar-Yehuda;Danny Hermelin;Dror Rawitz

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer Science, Technion IIT, Haifa, Israel;Department of Computer Science, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel;Department of Electrical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

  • Venue:
  • WAOA'09 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Approximation and Online Algorithms
  • Year:
  • 2009

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

The Nemhauser&Trotter Theorem provides an algorithm which is frequently used as a subroutine in approximation algorithms for the classical Vertex Cover problem. In this paper we present an extension of this theorem so it fits a more general variant of Vertex Cover, namely the Generalized Vertex Cover problem, where edges are allowed not to be covered at a certain predetermined penalty. We show that many applications of the original Nemhauser&Trotter Theorem can be applied using our extension to Generalized Vertex Cover. These applications include a $(2-\frac{2}{d})$-approximation algorithm for graphs of bounded degree d, a PTAS for planar graphs, a $(2-\frac{\lg \lg n}{2 \lg n})$-approximation algorithm for general graphs, and a 2k kernel for the parameterized Generalized Vertex Cover problem.