A Real Polynomial for Bipartite Graph Minimum Weight Perfect Matchings

Abstract

In a recent paper, Beniamini and Nisan gave a closed-form formula for the unique multilinear polynomial for the Boolean function determining whether a given bipartite graph $G\subseteq K_{n,n}$ has a perfect matching, together with an efficient algorithm for computing the coefficients of the monomials of this polynomial. We give the following generalization: Given an arbitrary non-negative weight function $w$ on the edges of $K_{n,n}$, consider its set of minimum weight perfect matchings. We give the real multilinear polynomial for the Boolean function which determines if a graph $G\subseteq K_{n,n}$ contains one of these minimum weight perfect matchings.

7 pages