New complexity results for the k-covers problem

The k-covers problem (kCP) asks us to compute a minimum cardinality set of strings of given length k > 1 that covers a given string. It was shown in a recent paper, by reduction to 3-SAT, that the k-covers problem is NP-complete. In this paper we introduce a new problem, that we call the k-bounde...

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Main Authors: Iliopoulos, Costas, Mohamed, M., Smyth, William
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier Inc 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14681
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author Iliopoulos, Costas
Mohamed, M.
Smyth, William
author_facet Iliopoulos, Costas
Mohamed, M.
Smyth, William
author_sort Iliopoulos, Costas
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The k-covers problem (kCP) asks us to compute a minimum cardinality set of strings of given length k > 1 that covers a given string. It was shown in a recent paper, by reduction to 3-SAT, that the k-covers problem is NP-complete. In this paper we introduce a new problem, that we call the k-bounded relaxed vertex cover problem (RVCPk), which we show is equivalent to k-bounded set cover (SCPk). We show further that kCP is a special case of RVCPk restricted to certain classes Gx,k of graphs that represent all strings x. Thus a minimum k-cover can be approximated to within a factor k in polynomial time. We discuss approximate solutions of kCP, and we state a number of conjectures and open problems related to kCP and Gx,k.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-146812018-03-29T09:06:09Z New complexity results for the k-covers problem Iliopoulos, Costas Mohamed, M. Smyth, William NP-complete Complexity String Regularity Cover The k-covers problem (kCP) asks us to compute a minimum cardinality set of strings of given length k > 1 that covers a given string. It was shown in a recent paper, by reduction to 3-SAT, that the k-covers problem is NP-complete. In this paper we introduce a new problem, that we call the k-bounded relaxed vertex cover problem (RVCPk), which we show is equivalent to k-bounded set cover (SCPk). We show further that kCP is a special case of RVCPk restricted to certain classes Gx,k of graphs that represent all strings x. Thus a minimum k-cover can be approximated to within a factor k in polynomial time. We discuss approximate solutions of kCP, and we state a number of conjectures and open problems related to kCP and Gx,k. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14681 10.1016/j.ins.2011.02.009 Elsevier Inc restricted
spellingShingle NP-complete
Complexity
String
Regularity
Cover
Iliopoulos, Costas
Mohamed, M.
Smyth, William
New complexity results for the k-covers problem
title New complexity results for the k-covers problem
title_full New complexity results for the k-covers problem
title_fullStr New complexity results for the k-covers problem
title_full_unstemmed New complexity results for the k-covers problem
title_short New complexity results for the k-covers problem
title_sort new complexity results for the k-covers problem
topic NP-complete
Complexity
String
Regularity
Cover
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14681