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Questions tagged [spanning-trees]

The spanning tree of a connected undirected graph G is a tree having all the vertices and some number of edges of G.

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69 votes
10 answers
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Minimum spanning tree vs Shortest path

What is the difference between minimum spanning tree algorithm and a shortest path algorithm? In my data structures class we covered two minimum spanning tree algorithms (Prim's and Kruskal's) and ...
flashburn's user avatar
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28 votes
3 answers
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When is the minimum spanning tree for a graph not unique

Given a weighted, undirected graph G: Which conditions must hold true so that there are multiple minimum spanning trees for G? I know that the MST is unique when all of the weights are distinct, but ...
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25 votes
7 answers
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Do any two spanning trees of a simple graph always have some common edges?

I tried few cases and found any two spanning tree of a simple graph has some common edges. I mean I couldn't find any counter example so far. But I couldn't prove or disprove this either. How to ...
Mr. Sigma.'s user avatar
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21 votes
2 answers
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Do the minimum spanning trees of a weighted graph have the same number of edges with a given weight?

If a weighted graph $G$ has two different minimum spanning trees $T_1 = (V_1, E_1)$ and $T_2 = (V_2, E_2)$, then is it true that for any edge $e$ in $E_1$, the number of edges in $E_1$ with the same ...
Aden Dong's user avatar
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15 votes
4 answers
11k views

Graph Has Two / Three Different Minimal Spanning Trees?

I'm trying to find an efficient method of detecting whether a given graph G has two different minimal spanning trees. I'm also trying to find a method to check whether it has 3 different minimal ...
itamar's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
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Why is the k-bounded spanning tree problem NP-complete?

The $k$-bounded spanning tree problem is where you have an undirected graph $G(V,E)$ and you have to decide whether or not it has a spanning tree such that each vertex has a degree of at most $k$. I ...
user17199's user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
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Minimal Spanning Tree With Double Weight Parameters

Consider a graph $G(V,E)$. Each edge $e$ has two weights $A_e$ and $B_e$. Find a spanning tree that minimizes the product $\left(\sum_{e \in T}{A_e}\right)\left(\sum_{e \in T}{B_e}\right)$. The ...
Strin's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Tighter analysis of modified Borůvka's algorithm

Borůvka's algorithm is one of the standard algorithms for calculating the minimum spanning tree for a graph $G = (V,E)$, with $|V| = n, |E| = m$. The pseudo-code is: ...
Joe's user avatar
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9 votes
3 answers
20k views

If all edges are of equal weight, can one use BFS to obtain a minimal spanning tree?

If given that all edges in a graph $G$ are of equal weight $c$, can one use breadth-first search (BFS) in order to produce a minimal spanning tree in linear time? Intuitively this sounds correct, as ...
TheNotMe's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
4k views

MST: Prim's algorithm complexity, why not $O(EV \lg V)$?

According to CLRS, the Prim's algorithms is implemented as below -- $\mathtt{\text{MST-PRIM}}(G,w,r)$ for each $u \in V[G]$ do $\mathtt{\text{key}}[u] \leftarrow \infty$ $\pi[u] ...
ramgorur's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
8k views

Finding MST after adding a new vertex

Let $G=(V,E)$ which is undirected and simple. We also have $T$, an MST of $G$. We add a vertex $v$ to the graph and connect it with weighted edges to some of the vertices. Find a new MST for the new ...
LiorGolan's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
2k views

Does a graph always have a minimum spanning tree that is binary?

I have a graph and I need to find a minimum spanning tree to a given graph. What is to be done so that the output obtained is a binary tree?
Aditya.M's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
186 views

MST with possibly minimal diameter

I am working with some research problem connected loosely to TSP which requires to find the Minimum Spanning Tree of a fully connected, weighted graph, where all the weights are positive and the graph ...
I_Really_Want_To_Heal_Myself's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
3k views

Necessary and sufficient condition for unique minimum spanning tree

This is an exercise problem (Ex.3) from the excellent lecture note by Jeff Erickson Lecture 20: Minimum Spanning Trees [Fa’13] . Prove that an edge-weighted graph $G$ has a unique minimum spanning ...
hengxin's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
795 views

Need a hint! Karger's algorithm versus Kruskal, spanning tree distribution

Let G = (V,E) be a unit-capacity graph with n vertices and m edges. Let T denote all the spanning trees in G. If we run Karger's algorithm, we will get a random spanning tree in T formed by the ...
MMP's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
5k views

Minimum spanning tree and its connected subgraph

This problem is from the book [1]. In case of being closed as a duplication of that in [2], I first make a defense: The accepted answer at [2] is still in dispute. The proof given by ...
hengxin's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
9k views

How to find spanning tree of a graph that minimizes the maximum edge weight?

Suppose we have a graph G. How can we find a spanning tree that minimizes the maximum weight of all the edges in the tree? I am convinced that by simply finding an MST of G would suffice, but I am ...
Aden Dong's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
3k views

Determining if an undirected connected graph is minimally connected

I'm trying to solve a practice problem in Elements of Programming Interviews (19.4) and I am a bit confused. The question is to determine if an undirected connected graph is minimally connected. ...
Nick's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
124 views

Min spanning tree that preserves total weight of original graph

I have a directed, weighted graph with no double edges. Each node represents a person, and each edge represents a debt. I want to reduce the total number of transactions required to settle all debt, i....
jeanluc's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
5k views

Minimal spanning tree with degree constraint

I have to solve this problem: We have weighted $n$-node undirected graph $G = (V,E)$ and a positive integer $k$. We can reach all vertices from vertex 1 (the root). We need to find the weight of ...
user3670's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
774 views

Minimum vertex-weight directed spanning tree where the weight function depends on the tree

Given a directed graph $G=(V,E)$ and a node $r\in V$, I need to grow a tree $T$ rooted at $r$ that has a minimum weight and spans all reachable nodes in $G$. The weight function assigns a non-...
ilija's user avatar
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5 votes
3 answers
4k views

Does spanning tree make sense for DAG?

Why cannot I find any information about spanning tree for DAG ? I must be wrong somewhere.
zell's user avatar
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5 votes
3 answers
10k views

Minimum spanning tree with two minimum edge weights

Given an undirected weighted graph $G$ with two edges of minimum weight and all other edges are distinct. Does G have a unique minimum spanning tree? I know the proof for if all edge weights are ...
gprime's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
288 views

Borůvka cleanup in linear time?

Given boruvka's algorithm: ...
TheEmeritus's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
167 views

MST that contains a shortest $s,t$-path

Consider the problem in which we have an (undirected) graph $G=(V,E)$, weight function $w:E\to\mathbb N$ and a pair of vertices $s,t\in V$, and are required to determine whether there exists an MST $T$...
Jordan B Meir's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Diameter-constrained Minimum Spanning Tree Problem

The diameter-constrained Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) problem is as follows: you have a undirected weighted graph $G = (V,E)$ of different weights where $V$ is the set of vertices and $E$ is the set of ...
Teodorico Levoff's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
5k views

How many minimal spanning trees are there when all edge costs are distinct?

Suppose all costs on edges are distinct. How many minimal spanning trees are possible? I dont know if this question is supposed to be easy or hard, but all I can come up with is one, because Kruskal'...
Mirrana's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
5k views

Is there a flaw in this Wikipedia proof of cycle property of Minimum Spanning Tree?

On wikipedia, there is a proof for the cycle property of the Minimum Spanning Tree as follows: Cycle Property: For any cycle C in the graph, if the weight of an edge e of C is larger than the ...
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4 votes
2 answers
961 views

Spanning tree - minimum difference between smallest and largest weight

I am given an undirected, weighted graph $G$, on its base I have to create a spanning tree with such a property that the difference between the largest edge weight and the smallest edge weight is the ...
PK96's user avatar
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4 votes
3 answers
6k views

Difference between spanning tree and a tree?

Strictly in the context of computer science, what is the difference between a spanning tree, and minimum spanning tree? I read this posts but was unsatisfied with the answer because it did not seem ...
chopper draw lion4's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
8k views

Spanning tree with chosen leaves

I'm working on the following problem: Suppose that we're given a connected, undirected graph $G = (V, E)$ with edge weights $w_e$ and a subset of vertices $U \subset V$. We want to find the lightest ...
Dave's user avatar
  • 111
4 votes
4 answers
1k views

Find a MST such that it's mostly red (original graph's edges are colored red and blue)

Consider the following problem: Given a simple, strongly-connected, weighted graph G=(V,E), of which every edge is colored either red or blue (in addition to having a numeric weight). Find an ...
The_Ben's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
1k views

Find a graph for which Kruskal's algorithm achieves worst-case running time

I am working on a problem in which I must find a graph with edge weights on n vertices, for which Kruskal's algorithm achieves worst-case running time. I am using a UNION-FIND data structure, but ...
Caleb Owusu-Yianoma's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
715 views

Why do the swap step in Prim's algorithm for minimum spanning trees?

I was watching the video lecture from MIT on Prim's algorithm for minimum spanning trees. Why do we need to do the swap step for proving the theorem that if we choose a set of vertices in minimum ...
Geek's user avatar
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4 votes
3 answers
1k views

Algorithms for procedural generated mazes

For the purposes of this question, a maze is a spanning tree on a square grid (although the type of grid isn't super important). There are many Maze generation algorithms, but they only work on a ...
PyRulez's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
540 views

Can a shortest-path tree be a also maximum spanning tree?

If we were to find the shortest-path tree rooted at some vertex in a weighted graph G, is it possible that the resulting tree is also a maximum-weight spanning tree of G? Please give an example! I ...
wilbertonunez's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
59 views

Count bridging edges in a family of two component forests

I am given a (simple, undirected, connected) graph $G = (V, E)$ and a fixed spanning tree $T$ in this graph. Removing an edge $e\in E(T)$ from $T$ splits it into a spanning forest $F^e$ with two ...
blue's user avatar
  • 141
4 votes
1 answer
137 views

Survival algorithm for Network deterministic failures

Consider an undirected network $G = (V,E)$ in which edge $e$ $\in$ $E$ fails after (deterministic) time $t(e) > 0$. Network failure occurs at the first instant in which $G$ is no longer connected. ...
Bassem's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes
2 answers
5k views

Find an MST in a graph with edge weights from {1,2}

I've been asked the following question: Given a connected undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ and a weight function $w: E \to \{1,2\}$, suggest an efficient algorithm that finds an MST of the graph. After ...
TheNotMe's user avatar
  • 571
3 votes
2 answers
5k views

What edges are not in any MST?

This is a homework question. I do not want the solution - I'm offering the solution I've been thinking of and wish to know whether is it good or why is it flawed. Consider a weighted undirected graph....
The-Q's user avatar
  • 139
3 votes
2 answers
840 views

Is every edge of a graph included in some spanning tree?

Let's say we have a graph $G$. We pick one edge from it (any edge). Will there always be such a spanning tree that contains that very edge? I think the answer is yes, because no matter what we do we ...
vojtak's user avatar
  • 205
3 votes
1 answer
521 views

Kirchhoff's Spanning Tree Algorithm

Recently I have studied Kirchhoff's spanning tree algorithm to count the number of spanning trees of a graph, which has the following steps: Build an adjacency matrix Replace the diagonal entries ...
Turing101's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
150 views

how to generate all spanning trees from one spanning tree

If I have one spanning tree from a connected and undirected graph, how can I generate all other spanning trees of this graph by modifying this spanning tree one edge at a time? All intermediates must ...
Tommy Hebert's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is maximum-leaves spanning tree np-complete?

How can we show that a maximum-leaves spanning tree is NP-complete? what other np-complete problem we can use as our reduction base? (maximum-leaves spanning tree: does G have a spanning tree with at ...
mellodi's user avatar
  • 33
3 votes
1 answer
668 views

Local search to find minimum degree spanning tree

Suppose for a graph $G=(V,E)$ and a spanning tree T of G, $\Delta(T)$ is the largest degree of a vertex in T, and let $\Delta^*$ be the smallest such quantity over all spanning trees of $G$. We have ...
iMath's user avatar
  • 31
3 votes
2 answers
2k views

Prim's Algorithm - Building the Priority Queue

Suppose we were using a priority queue (PQ) to implement Prim's algorithm. My understanding is that initially the weight of all vertices is set to $\infty$. The weight of the starting vertex is then ...
EggHead's user avatar
  • 181
3 votes
1 answer
273 views

Computational complexity of finding a spanning tree in planar hybergraphs

Using a bipartite graph to represent hypergraphs as described by Wikipedia : A hypergraph $H$ may be represented by a bipartite graph $BG$ as follows: the sets $X$ and $E$ are the partitions of $...
Badran's user avatar
  • 141
3 votes
1 answer
183 views

Show that the diameter of a MST is sometimes larger by a factor $\Omega(n)$ than the diameter of the graph $G$

As my title points out, I don't understand how do you show that, in general, the diameter of a MST (minimal spanning tree) can be bigger than the diameter of G, by the factor $\Omega(n)$. $(n:= |V|, G ...
M.Mac's user avatar
  • 219
3 votes
0 answers
4k views

Applications of min spanning trees

What are the significant applications of minimum spanning trees? After doing some research online and in several textbooks, I have found three real-world applications: Building a connected network. ...
D.W.'s user avatar
  • 152k
2 votes
3 answers
1k views

Algorithm to get any spanning tree not necessarily a minimum spanning tree

Is there an algorithm to find a spanning tree. I know that there are $n^{n-2}$ of them and we have algorithms to find a minimum spanning tree. But what if I just want any spanning tree? It doesn't ...
heretoinfinity's user avatar