Shortest Paths in Multimode Graphs

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kirkpatrick, Yael, Williams, Virginia Vassilevska
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913915465629696
author Kirkpatrick, Yael
Williams, Virginia Vassilevska
author_facet Kirkpatrick, Yael
Williams, Virginia Vassilevska
contents In this work we study shortest path problems in multimode graphs, a generalization of the min-distance measure introduced by Abboud, Vassilevska W. and Wang in [SODA'16]. A multimode shortest path is the shortest path using one of multiple `modes' of transportation that cannot be combined. This represents real-world scenarios where different modes are not combinable, such as flights operated by different airlines. More precisely, a $k$-multimode graph is a collection of $k$ graphs on the same vertex set and the $k$-mode distance between two vertices is defined as the minimum among the distances computed in each individual graph. We focus on approximating fundamental graph parameters on these graphs, specifically diameter and radius. In undirected multimode graphs we first show an elegant linear time 3-approximation algorithm for 2-mode diameter. We then extend this idea into a general subroutine that can be used as a part of any $α$-approximation, and use it to construct a 2 and 2.5 approximation algorithm for 2-mode diameter. For undirected radius, we introduce a general scheme that can compute a 3-approximation of the $k$-mode radius for any $k$. In the directed case we develop novel techniques to construct a linear time algorithm to determine whether the diameter is finite. We also develop many conditional fine-grained lower bounds for various multimode diameter and radius approximation problems. We are able to show that many of our algorithms are tight under popular fine-grained complexity hypotheses, including our linear time 3-approximation for $3$-mode undirected diameter and radius. As part of this effort we propose the first extension to the Hitting Set Hypothesis [SODA'16], which we call the $\ell$-Hitting Set Hypothesis. We use this hypothesis to prove the first parameterized lower bound tradeoff for radius approximation algorithms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_22261
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Shortest Paths in Multimode Graphs
Kirkpatrick, Yael
Williams, Virginia Vassilevska
Data Structures and Algorithms
In this work we study shortest path problems in multimode graphs, a generalization of the min-distance measure introduced by Abboud, Vassilevska W. and Wang in [SODA'16]. A multimode shortest path is the shortest path using one of multiple `modes' of transportation that cannot be combined. This represents real-world scenarios where different modes are not combinable, such as flights operated by different airlines. More precisely, a $k$-multimode graph is a collection of $k$ graphs on the same vertex set and the $k$-mode distance between two vertices is defined as the minimum among the distances computed in each individual graph. We focus on approximating fundamental graph parameters on these graphs, specifically diameter and radius. In undirected multimode graphs we first show an elegant linear time 3-approximation algorithm for 2-mode diameter. We then extend this idea into a general subroutine that can be used as a part of any $α$-approximation, and use it to construct a 2 and 2.5 approximation algorithm for 2-mode diameter. For undirected radius, we introduce a general scheme that can compute a 3-approximation of the $k$-mode radius for any $k$. In the directed case we develop novel techniques to construct a linear time algorithm to determine whether the diameter is finite. We also develop many conditional fine-grained lower bounds for various multimode diameter and radius approximation problems. We are able to show that many of our algorithms are tight under popular fine-grained complexity hypotheses, including our linear time 3-approximation for $3$-mode undirected diameter and radius. As part of this effort we propose the first extension to the Hitting Set Hypothesis [SODA'16], which we call the $\ell$-Hitting Set Hypothesis. We use this hypothesis to prove the first parameterized lower bound tradeoff for radius approximation algorithms.
title Shortest Paths in Multimode Graphs
topic Data Structures and Algorithms
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22261