Abstract
In an $n$ by $n$ complete bipartite graph with independent exponentially distributed edge costs, we ask for the minimum total cost of a set of edges of which each vertex is incident to at least one. This so-called minimum edge cover problem is a relaxation of perfect matching. We show that the large $n$ limit cost of the minimum edge cover is $W(1)^2+2W(1)\approx 1.456$, where $W$ is the Lambert $W$-function. In particular this means that the minimum edge cover is essentially cheaper than the minimum perfect matching, whose limit cost is $\pi^2/6\approx 1.645$. We obtain this result through a generalization of the perfect matching problem to a setting where we impose a (poly-)matroid structure on the two vertex-sets of the graph, and ask for an edge set of prescribed size connecting independent sets.
Citation
Martin Hessler. Johan Wästlund. "Edge cover and polymatroid flow problems." Electron. J. Probab. 15 2200 - 2219, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1214/EJP.v15-846
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