Design and Analysis of

Algorithms
6.046

Lecture 18
Approximation Algorithms II
Prof. Piotr Indyk
 Approximation algorithms

• In the previous episode:

– Vertex cover (twice: greedy and linear
programming)
– Set Cover
• Today:
– Traveling Salesperson Problem
 Approximation Algorithms

• An algorithm A for a minimization problem is r-

approximate, if, on any input of size n:
– The cost CA of the solution produced by the
algorithm, and
– The cost COPT of the optimal solution
are such that CA ≤ r COPT
• For maximization problems, replace by
CA ≥ 1/r COPT
 TSP

• Metric Traveling Salesperson

Problem (TSP)
– Input:
• a set P of n points,
• a distance function d(p,q)
– The function d(p,q) is non-
negative, symmetric
and satisfies the triangle
inequality:
d(pi,pj) ≤ d(pi,pk) + d(pk,pj)
– Output: shortest cycle that visits
each vertex exactly once
 2-approximation for TSP

• Compute MST T
– An edge between any pair of points
– Weight = distance between endpoints
• Compute a tree-walk W of T
– Each edge visited twice
• Convert W into a cycle C using
shortcuts
 2-approximation: Proof
• Notation:
– COPT = optimal cycle
– T = MST
– W = tree walk of T
• Observe that:
– Cost(T) ≤ Cost(COPT )
• Removing an edge from COPT gives a spanning tree; T is a
spanning tree of minimum cost
– Cost(W) = 2 Cost(T)
• Each edge visited twice
– Cost(C) ≤ Cost(W)
• Triangle inequality
Þ Cost(C) ≤ 2 Cost(COPT )
 Better approximation?

• The bottleneck: converting tree T into the

walk W
– Induces a factor of 2
• Can we do better ?
• Yes! (Christofides’76; Serdyukov’76)
• Main idea: convert tree T into a walk W in a
better way
• Note: we will use certain facts in a black-
box manner
 Creating better walk

• Eulerian tour of a graph: a tour that visits

each edge exactly once
• Theorem: A graph G has an Euler Tour if
and only if every vertex has even degree
• Proof: 6.042
 The algorithm

• Compute MST T
• Let O be the set of odd
degrees in T
• Compute min-cost
matching M of vertices in O
– O has even size, details next slide
• Compute the Euler tour W
of T+ M
• Convert W into a cycle C
using shortcuts, as before
 Matching
• Claim: The size of O is even
• Proof:
– The sum of vertex degrees in any graph
is even (hand-shaking lemma)
– If |O| was odd, then the sum of the
degrees in T would be odd –
contradiction
• Thus, vertices in O can be matched
• Minimum matching can be found in
polynomial time (Edmonds’65)
 Approximation factor
• Notation:
– COPT = optimal cycle
– T = MST
– O = odd vertices in T
– M = min cost matching of O
– W = Euler tour of T+M
• Claim: Cost(M) ≤ Cost(COPT )/2
• Proof:
– Let Codd be the min cost tour on the odd vertices O
only. We have cost(Codd) ≤ cost(COPT)
– Odd edges on Codd form a matching and even edges
on Codd form a matching
– One of them has cost ≤ Cost(COPT )/2
• Thus Cost(W) ≤ Cost(T)+Cost(M)
≤ 3/2 Cost(COPT )
• Shortcutting can only decrease the cost
 Maximum Cardinality
Matching

• Given a graph G=(V,E), find matching M in

G of maximum size
• In Lecture 10, we have seen an algorithm
for maximum cardinality matching in
bipartite graphs via reduction to maximum
flow
– Finds optimal solution, but slow-ish:
O(VE) time
• Can we approximate faster ?
 2-Approximation algorithm

• Find maximal matching Mmax in G (as in

previous lecture)
• Show that |Mmax| ≥ |MOPT|/2
 Maximal matching algorithm

On input G=(V,E)
• Set E ’ = E
• Set M=f
• While E ’ ¹ f (some edges not covered yet)
– Pick any edge (u,v) of E’
– Add (u,v) to M
– Remove from E’ every edge incident to either u or v
• Return M

Total runtime: O(E)

 2-approximation

• Claim: |Mmax| ≥ |MOPT|/2

• Proof:
– Each edge added to Mmax “blocks” at
most two edges in MOPT
– The maximal matching algorithm will run
for at least |MOPT|/2 iterations