Revisiting a Cutting-Plane Method for Perfect Matchings

In 2016, Chandrasekaran, Végh, and Vempala (Mathematics of Operations Research, 41(1):23–48) published a method to solve the minimum-cost perfect matching problem on an arbitrary graph by solving a strictly polynomial number of linear programs. However, their method requires a strong uniqueness cond...

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Main Authors: Chen, Amber Q., Cheung, Kevin K. H., Kielstra, P. Michael, Winn, Avery D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université de Montpellier 2020-12-01
Series:Open Journal of Mathematical Optimization
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Online Access:https://ojmo.centre-mersenne.org/articles/10.5802/ojmo.2/
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author Chen, Amber Q.
Cheung, Kevin K. H.
Kielstra, P. Michael
Winn, Avery D.
author_facet Chen, Amber Q.
Cheung, Kevin K. H.
Kielstra, P. Michael
Winn, Avery D.
author_sort Chen, Amber Q.
collection DOAJ
description In 2016, Chandrasekaran, Végh, and Vempala (Mathematics of Operations Research, 41(1):23–48) published a method to solve the minimum-cost perfect matching problem on an arbitrary graph by solving a strictly polynomial number of linear programs. However, their method requires a strong uniqueness condition, which they imposed by using perturbations of the form $c(i)=c_0(i)+2^{-i}$. On large graphs (roughly $m>100$), these perturbations lead to cost values that exceed the precision of floating-point formats used by typical linear programming solvers for numerical calculations. We demonstrate, by a sequence of counterexamples, that perturbations are required for the algorithm to work, motivating our formulation of a general method that arrives at the same solution to the problem as Chandrasekaran et al. but overcomes the limitations described above by solving multiple linear programs without using perturbations. The key ingredient of our method is an adaptation of an algorithm for lexicographic linear goal programming due to Ignizio (Journal of the Operational Research Society, 36(6):507–515, 1985). We then give an explicit algorithm that exploits our method, and show that this new algorithm still runs in strongly polynomial time.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2777-5860
language English
publishDate 2020-12-01
publisher Université de Montpellier
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series Open Journal of Mathematical Optimization
spelling doaj-art-3b5c40279444489380da21667fc301ce2025-02-07T14:02:14ZengUniversité de MontpellierOpen Journal of Mathematical Optimization2777-58602020-12-01111510.5802/ojmo.210.5802/ojmo.2Revisiting a Cutting-Plane Method for Perfect MatchingsChen, Amber Q.0Cheung, Kevin K. H.1Kielstra, P. Michael2Winn, Avery D.3University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, CanadaCarleton University, 1125 Colonel By Dr., Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, CanadaHarvard University, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USAUniversity of Michigan, 530 S State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USAIn 2016, Chandrasekaran, Végh, and Vempala (Mathematics of Operations Research, 41(1):23–48) published a method to solve the minimum-cost perfect matching problem on an arbitrary graph by solving a strictly polynomial number of linear programs. However, their method requires a strong uniqueness condition, which they imposed by using perturbations of the form $c(i)=c_0(i)+2^{-i}$. On large graphs (roughly $m>100$), these perturbations lead to cost values that exceed the precision of floating-point formats used by typical linear programming solvers for numerical calculations. We demonstrate, by a sequence of counterexamples, that perturbations are required for the algorithm to work, motivating our formulation of a general method that arrives at the same solution to the problem as Chandrasekaran et al. but overcomes the limitations described above by solving multiple linear programs without using perturbations. The key ingredient of our method is an adaptation of an algorithm for lexicographic linear goal programming due to Ignizio (Journal of the Operational Research Society, 36(6):507–515, 1985). We then give an explicit algorithm that exploits our method, and show that this new algorithm still runs in strongly polynomial time.https://ojmo.centre-mersenne.org/articles/10.5802/ojmo.2/perfect matchinguniquenessperturbationlexicographic linear goal programmingcutting-plane
spellingShingle Chen, Amber Q.
Cheung, Kevin K. H.
Kielstra, P. Michael
Winn, Avery D.
Revisiting a Cutting-Plane Method for Perfect Matchings
Open Journal of Mathematical Optimization
perfect matching
uniqueness
perturbation
lexicographic linear goal programming
cutting-plane
title Revisiting a Cutting-Plane Method for Perfect Matchings
title_full Revisiting a Cutting-Plane Method for Perfect Matchings
title_fullStr Revisiting a Cutting-Plane Method for Perfect Matchings
title_full_unstemmed Revisiting a Cutting-Plane Method for Perfect Matchings
title_short Revisiting a Cutting-Plane Method for Perfect Matchings
title_sort revisiting a cutting plane method for perfect matchings
topic perfect matching
uniqueness
perturbation
lexicographic linear goal programming
cutting-plane
url https://ojmo.centre-mersenne.org/articles/10.5802/ojmo.2/
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AT winnaveryd revisitingacuttingplanemethodforperfectmatchings