Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.15992 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866909796770250752 |
|---|---|
| author | Hasibi, Hamed Mhaskar, Neerja Smyth, W. F. |
| author_facet | Hasibi, Hamed Mhaskar, Neerja Smyth, W. F. |
| contents | Finding an Approximate Longest Common Substring (ALCS) within a given set $S=\{s_1,s_2,\ldots,s_m\}$ of $m \ge 2$ strings is a key problem in computational biology, such as identifying related mutations across multiple genetic sequences. We study several variants of ALCS problems that, given integers $k$ and $t \le m$, seek the longest string $u$ -- or the longest substring $u$ of any string in $S$ -- that lies within distance $k$ of at least one substring in $t$ distinct strings from $S$. While the general problems are NP-hard, we present efficient algorithms for restricted cases under Hamming and edit distances using the $LCP_k$ and $k$-errata tree data structures. Our methods achieve run times of $\mathcal{O}(N^2)$, $\mathcal{O}(k\ell N^2)$, and $\mathcal{O}(mN\log^k \ell)$, where $\ell$ is the length of the longest string and $N$ is the sum of the lengths of all the strings in $S$. We also establish conditional lower bounds under the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis and extend our study to indeterminate strings. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_15992 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | On the Complexity of Finding Approximate LCS of Multiple Strings Hasibi, Hamed Mhaskar, Neerja Smyth, W. F. Data Structures and Algorithms Finding an Approximate Longest Common Substring (ALCS) within a given set $S=\{s_1,s_2,\ldots,s_m\}$ of $m \ge 2$ strings is a key problem in computational biology, such as identifying related mutations across multiple genetic sequences. We study several variants of ALCS problems that, given integers $k$ and $t \le m$, seek the longest string $u$ -- or the longest substring $u$ of any string in $S$ -- that lies within distance $k$ of at least one substring in $t$ distinct strings from $S$. While the general problems are NP-hard, we present efficient algorithms for restricted cases under Hamming and edit distances using the $LCP_k$ and $k$-errata tree data structures. Our methods achieve run times of $\mathcal{O}(N^2)$, $\mathcal{O}(k\ell N^2)$, and $\mathcal{O}(mN\log^k \ell)$, where $\ell$ is the length of the longest string and $N$ is the sum of the lengths of all the strings in $S$. We also establish conditional lower bounds under the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis and extend our study to indeterminate strings. |
| title | On the Complexity of Finding Approximate LCS of Multiple Strings |
| topic | Data Structures and Algorithms |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.15992 |