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Title: A Parallel 2/3-Approximation Algorithm for Vertex-Weighted Matching
We consider the maximum vertex-weighted matching problem (MVM), in which non-negative weights are assigned to the vertices of a graph, and the weight of a matching is the sum of the weights of the matched vertices. Although exact algorithms for MVM are faster than exact algorithms for the maximum edge-weighted matching problem, there are graphs on which these exact algorithms could take hundreds of hours. For a natural number k, we design a k/(k + 1)approximation algorithm for MVM on non-bipartite graphs that updates the matching along certain short paths in the graph: either augmenting paths of length at most 2k + 1 or weight-increasing paths of length at most 2k. The choice of k = 2 leads to a 2/3-approximation algorithm that computes nearly optimal weights fast. This algorithm could be initialized with a 2/3-approximate maximum cardinality matching to reduce its runtime in practice. A 1/2-approximation algorithm may be obtained using k = 1, which is faster than the 2/3-approximation algorithm but it computes lower weights. The 2/3-approximation algorithm has time complexity O(Δ2m) while the time complexity of the 1/2-approximation algorithm is O(Δm), where m is the number of edges and Δ is the maximum degree of a vertex. Results from our serial implementations show that on average the 1/2-approximation algorithm runs faster than the Suitor algorithm (currently the fastest 1/2-approximation algorithm) while the 2/3-approximation algorithm runs as fast as the Suitor algorithm but obtains higher weights for the matching. One advantage of the proposed algorithms is that they are well-suited for parallel implementation since they can process vertices to match in any order. The 1/2- and 2/3-approximation algorithms have been implemented on a shared memory parallel computer, and both approximation algorithms obtain good speedups, while the former algorithm runs faster on average than the parallel Suitor algorithm. Care is needed to design the parallel algorithm to avoid cyclic waits, and we prove that it is live-lock free.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1637534
PAR ID:
10181551
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
SIAM 2020 Workshop on Combinatorial Scientific Computing
Page Range / eLocation ID:
12-21
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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