An efficient fixed-parameter algorithm for 3-hitting set

  • Authors:
  • Rolf Niedermeier;Peter Rossmanith

  • Affiliations:
  • Wilhelm-Schickard-Institut für Informatik, Universität Tübingen, Sand 13, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany;Department of Computer Science, RWTH Aachen, Ahornstr. 55, D-52074 Aachen, Germany

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Discrete Algorithms
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

Given a collection C of subsets of size three of a finite set S and a positive integer k, the 3-Hitting Set problem is to determine a subset S' ⊆ S with |S'| ≤ k, so that S' contains at least one element from each subset in C. The problem is NP-complete, and is motivated, for example, by applications in computational biology. Improving previous work, we give an O(2.270k + n) time algorithm for 3-Hitting Set, which is efficient for small values of k, a typical occurrence in some applications. For d-Hitting Set we present an O(ck + n) time algorithm with c = d - 1 + O(d-1).