Computing the sequence of $k$-cardinality assignments

Abstract

The $k$-cardinality assignment problem asks for finding a maximal (minimal) weight of a matching of cardinality $k$ in a weighted bipartite graph $K_{n,n}$, $k\le n$. The algorithm of Gassner and Klinz from 2010 for the parametric assignment problem computes in time $O(n^3)$ the set of $k$-cardinality assignments for those integers $k\le n$ which refer to "essential" terms of a corresponding maxpolynomial. We show here that one can extend this algorithm and compute in a second stage the other "semi-essential" terms in time $O(n^2)$, which results in a time complexity of $O(n^3)$ for the whole sequence of $k=1,...,n$-cardinality assignments. The more there are assignments left to be computed at the second stage the faster the two-stage algorithm runs. In general, however, there is no benefit for this two-stage algorithm on the existing algorithms, e.g. the simpler network flow algorithm based on the successive shortest path algorithm which also computes all the $k$-cardinality assignments in time $O(n^3)$.

19 pages