On the MST-ratio: Theoretical Bounds and Complexity of Finding the Maximum

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Main Authors: Ameli, Afrouz Jabal, Motiei, Faezeh, Saghafian, Morteza
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Ameli, Afrouz Jabal
Motiei, Faezeh
Saghafian, Morteza
author_facet Ameli, Afrouz Jabal
Motiei, Faezeh
Saghafian, Morteza
contents Given a finite set of red and blue points in $\Rspace^d$, the MST-ratio is defined as the total length of the Euclidean minimum spanning trees of the red points and the blue points, divided by the length of the Euclidean minimum spanning tree of their union. The MST-ratio has recently gained attention due to its direct interpretation in topological models for studying point sets with applications in spatial biology. The maximum MST-ratio of a point set is the maximum MST-ratio over all proper colorings of its points by red and blue. We prove that finding the maximum MST-ratio of a given point set is NP-hard when the dimension is part of the input. Moreover, we present a quadratic-time $3$-approximation algorithm for this problem. As part of the proof, we show that, in any metric space, the maximum MST-ratio is smaller than $3$. Additionally, we study the average MST-ratio over all colorings of a set of $n$ points. We show that this average is always at least $\frac{n-2}{n-1}$, and for $n$ random points uniformly distributed in a $d$-dimensional unit cube, the average tends to $\sqrt[d]{2}$ in expectation as $n$ approaches infinity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_11079
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the MST-ratio: Theoretical Bounds and Complexity of Finding the Maximum
Ameli, Afrouz Jabal
Motiei, Faezeh
Saghafian, Morteza
Computational Geometry
Computational Complexity
Combinatorics
05C05, 05C10, 05C12, 05C85, 68Q25
F.2; G.2.1; G.2.2; G.2.3
Given a finite set of red and blue points in $\Rspace^d$, the MST-ratio is defined as the total length of the Euclidean minimum spanning trees of the red points and the blue points, divided by the length of the Euclidean minimum spanning tree of their union. The MST-ratio has recently gained attention due to its direct interpretation in topological models for studying point sets with applications in spatial biology. The maximum MST-ratio of a point set is the maximum MST-ratio over all proper colorings of its points by red and blue. We prove that finding the maximum MST-ratio of a given point set is NP-hard when the dimension is part of the input. Moreover, we present a quadratic-time $3$-approximation algorithm for this problem. As part of the proof, we show that, in any metric space, the maximum MST-ratio is smaller than $3$. Additionally, we study the average MST-ratio over all colorings of a set of $n$ points. We show that this average is always at least $\frac{n-2}{n-1}$, and for $n$ random points uniformly distributed in a $d$-dimensional unit cube, the average tends to $\sqrt[d]{2}$ in expectation as $n$ approaches infinity.
title On the MST-ratio: Theoretical Bounds and Complexity of Finding the Maximum
topic Computational Geometry
Computational Complexity
Combinatorics
05C05, 05C10, 05C12, 05C85, 68Q25
F.2; G.2.1; G.2.2; G.2.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.11079