We make several observations on the implementation of Edmonds’ blossom algorithm for solving minimum-weight perfectmatching problems and we present computational results for geometric problem instances ranging in size from 1,000 nodes up to 5,000,000 nodes. A key feature in our implementation is the use of multiple search trees with an individual dual-change � for each tree. As a benchmark of the algorithm’s performance, solving a 100,000-node geometric instance on a 200 Mhz Pentium-Pro computer takes approximately 3 minutes.

Several papers describe linear time algorithms to preprocess a tree, such that one can answer subsequent nearest common ancestor queries in constant time. Here, we survey these algorithms and related results. A common idea used by all the algorithms for the problem is that a solution for complete balanced binary trees is straightforward. Furthermore, for complete balanced binary trees we can easily solve the problem in a distributed way by labeling the nodes of the tree such that from the labels of two nodes alone one can compute the label of their nearest common ancestor. Whether it is possible to distribute the data structure into short labels associated with the nodes is important for several applications such as routing. Therefore, related labeling problems have received a lot of attention recently.

We examine the amount of preprocessing needed for answering certain on-line queries as fast as possible. We start with the following basic problem. Suppose we are given a semigroup (S,°). Let s 1,..., sn be elements of S. We want to answer on-line queries of the form, "What is the product s i°s i +1 ° j −1 j n 1... °s °s? " for any give ≤ i ≤ j ≤ n. We show that a preprocessing of Θ(n λ(k,n)) time and space is both necessary and sufficient to answer each such query in at most k steps, for any fixed k. The function λ(k,.) is the inverse of a certain function at the �k /2 �−th level of the prim-itive recursive hierarchy. In case linear preprocessing is desired, we show that one can answer each such query in at most O (α(n)) steps and that this is best possible. The function α(n) is the inverse Ackermann function. We also consider the following extended problem. Let T be a tree with an element of S associated with each of its vertices. We want to answer on-line queries of the form, " What is the product of the elements associated with the vertices along the path from u to v? " for any pair of vertices u and v in T. We derive results, which are similar to the above, for the preprocessing needed for answering such queries. All our sequential preprocessing algorithms can be parallelized efficiently to give optimal parallel algorithms which run in O (logn) time on a CREW PRAM. These parallel algorithms are optimal in both running time and total number of operations.

A parallel multithreaded program that is ostensibly deterministic

A linear time algorithm is presented for finding dominators in control flow graphs.

The problem of finding the dominators in a control-flow graph has a long history in the literature. The original algorithms su#ered from a large asymptotic complexity but were easy to understand. Subsequent work improved the time bound, but generally sacrificed both simplicity and ease of implementation. This paper returns to a simple formulation of dominance as a global data-flow problem. Some insights into the natureofdominance lead to an implementation of an O(N )algorithm that runs faster, in practice, than the classic Lengauer-Tarjan algorithm, which has a timebound of O(E log(N)). We compare the algorithm to Lengauer-Tarjan because it is the best known and most widely used of the fast algorithms for dominance. Working from the same implementationinsights,wealso rederive (from earlier work on control dependence by Ferrante, et al.)amethodforcalculating dominance frontiers that we show is faster than the original algorithm by Cytron, et al. The aim of this paper is not to present a new algorithm, but, rather, to make an argument based on empirical evidence that algorithms with discouraging asymptotic complexities can be faster in practice than those more commonly employed. We show that, in some cases, careful engineering of simple algorithms can overcome theoretical advantages, even when problems grow beyond realistic sizes. Further, we argue that the algorithms presented herein are intuitive and easily implemented, making them excellent teaching tools.

The Range-Minimum-Query-Problem is to preprocess an array such that the position of the minimum element between two specified indices can be obtained efficiently. We present a direct algorithm for the general RMQ-problem with linear preprocessing time and constant query time, without making use of any dynamic data structure. It consumes less than half of the space that is needed by the method by Berkman and Vishkin. We use our new algorithm for RMQ to improve on LCA-computation for binary trees, and further give a constant-time LCE-algorithm solely based on arrays. Both LCA and LCE have important applications, e.g., in computational biology. Experimental studies show that our new method is almost twice as fast in practice as previous approaches, and asymptotically slower variants of the constant-time algorithms perform even better for today’s common problem sizes.

Abstract. We present a new scheme for computing shortest paths on real-weighted undirected graphs in the fundamental comparison-addition model. In an efficient preprocessing phase our algorithm creates a linear-size structure that facilitates single-source shortest path computations in O(m log α) time, where α = α(m, n) is the very slowly growing inverse-Ackermann function, m the number of edges, and n the number of vertices. As special cases our algorithm implies new bounds on both the all-pairs and single-source shortest paths problems. We solve the all-pairs problem in O(mnlog α(m, n)) time and, if the ratio between the maximum and minimum edge lengths is bounded by n (log n)O(1) , we can solve the single-source problem in O(m + nlog log n) time. Both these results are theoretical improvements over Dijkstra’s algorithm, which was the previous best for real weighted undirected graphs. Our algorithm takes the hierarchy-based approach invented by Thorup. Key words. single-source shortest paths, all-pairs shortest paths, undirected graphs, Dijkstra’s

We give a simple algorithm that labels the nodes of a rooted tree such that from the labels of two nodes alone one can compute in constant time the label of their nearest common ancestor. The labels assigned by our algorithm are of size O(log n) bits where n is the number of nodes in the tree. The algorithm runs in O(n) time.

Abstract. The two dimensional range minimum query problem is to preprocess a static two dimensional m by n array A of size N = m · n, such that subsequent queries, asking for the position of the minimum element in a rectangular range within A, can be answered efficiently. We study the trade-off between the space and query time of the problem. We show that every algorithm enabled to access A during the query and using O(N/c) bits additional space requires Ω(c) query time, for any c where 1 ≤ c ≤ N. This lower bound holds for any dimension. In particular, for the one dimensional version of the problem, the lower bound is tight up to a constant factor. In two dimensions, we complement the lower bound with an indexing data structure of size O(N/c) bits additional space which can be preprocessed in O(N) time and achieves O(c log 2 c) query time. For c = O(1), this is the first O(1) query time algorithm using optimal O(N) bits additional space. For the case where queries can not probe A, we give a data structure of size O(N · min{m, log n}) bits with O(1) query time, assuming m ≤ n. This leaves a gap to the lower bound of Ω(N log m) bits for this version of the problem. 1