On the probabilistic min spanning tree Problem

We study a probabilistic optimization model for min spanning tree, where any vertex vi of the input-graph G(V,E) has some presence probability pi in the final instance G′ ⊂ G that will effectively be optimized. Suppose that when this “real” instance G′ becomes known, a spanning tree T, called anticipatory or a priori spanning tree, has already been computed in G and one can run a quick algorithm (quicker than one that recomputes from scratch), called modification strategy, that modifies the anticipatory tree T in order to fit G ′. The goal is to compute an anticipatory spanning tree of G such that, its modification for any G ′ ⊆ G is optimal for G ′. This is what we call probabilistic min spanning tree problem. In this paper we study complexity and approximation of probabilistic min spanning tree in complete graphs under two distinct modification strategies leading to different complexity results for the problem. For the first of the strategies developed, we also study two natural subproblems of probabilistic min spanning tree, namely, the probabilistic metric min spanning tree and the probabilistic min spanning tree 1,2 that deal with metric complete graphs and complete graphs with edge-weights either 1, or 2, respectively

Probabilistic optimization in graph-problems

We study a probabilistic optimization model for graph-problems under vertex-uncertainty. We assume that any vertex vi of the input-graph G(V,E) has only a probability pi to be present in the final graph to be optimized (i.e., the final instance for the problem tackled will be only a sub-graph of the initial graph). Under this model, the original "deterministic" problem gives rise to a new (deterministic) problem on the same input-graph G, having the same set of feasible solutions as the former one, but its objective function can be very different from the original one, the set of its optimal solutions too. Moreover, this objective function is a sum of 2|V| terms; hence, its computation is not immediately polynomial. We give sufficient conditions for large classes of graph-problems under which objective functions of the probabilistic counterparts are polynomially computable and optimal solutions are well-characterized. Finally, we apply these general results to natural and well-known combinatorial problems that belong to the classes considered

Probabilistic coloring of bipartite and split graphs

We revisit in this paper the probabilistic coloring problem (probabilistic coloring) and focus ourselves on bipartite and split graphs. We first give some general properties dealing with the optimal solution. We then show that the unique 2-coloring achieves approximation ratio 2 in bipartite graphs under any system of vertex-probabilities and propose a polynomial algorithm achieving tight approximation ratio 8/7 under identical vertex-probabilities. Then we deal with restricted cases of bipartite graphs. Main results for these cases are the following. Under non-identical vertex-probabilities probabilistic coloring is polynomial for stars, for trees with bounded degree and a fixed number of distinct vertex-probabilities, and, consequently, also for paths with a fixed number of distinct vertex-probabilities. Under identical vertex-probabilities, probabilistic coloring is polynomial for paths, for even and odd cycles and for trees whose leaves are either at even or at odd levels. Next, we deal with split graphs and show that probabilistic coloring is NP-hard, even under identical vertex-probabilities. Finally, we study approximation in split graphs and provide a 2-approximation algorithm for the case of distinct probabilities and a polynomial time approximation schema under identical vertex-probabilities