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Faster algorithms for half-integral T -Path packing
Let G = (V,E) be an undirected graph, T ⊆ V be a set of terminals. Then a natural combinatorial problem consists in finding the maximum number of vertex-disjoint paths connecting distinct terminals. For this problem, a clever construction suggested by Gallai reduces it to computing a maximum non-bipartite matching and thus gives an O ( m √n log n 2 /m log n ) -Time algorithm (hereinafter n := |V |, m := |E|). Now let us consider the fractional relaxation, i.e. allow T-path packings with arbitrary nonnegative real weights. It is known that there always exists a half-integral solution, that is, one only needs to assign weights 0, 1/2 , 1 to maximize the total weight of T-paths. It is also known that an optimum half-integral packing can be found in strongly-polynomial time but the actual time bounds are far from being satisfactory. In this paper we present a novel algorithm that solves the half-integral problem within O ( m √n log n 2 /m log n )time, thus matching the complexities of integral and half-integral versions.