$(\alpha ,\beta )$ Spanners and Hybrid Spanners with Nearly Tight Bounds

Abstract

For an $n$-vertex undirected, unweighted graph $G=(V,E)$ and a positive integer $k$, we present new spanner constructions with $O_k(n^{1+1/k})$ edges that achieve nearly optimal guarantees for all distances $d\le k$. Specifically, we construct a spanner $H\subseteq G$ with $O(n^{1+1/k}+(k+d\log d)n)$ edges, ensuring that any pair at original distance at most $d$ satisfies ${\mathrm{dist}}_H(u,v)\le 2k+O(d\log d)$. Equivalently, the multiplicative stretch for pairs at distance $d$ is $2k/d+O(\log d)$. In particular, setting $d=k/\log k$ yields an $(O(\log k),O(k))$-spanner with $O(n^{1+1/k}+kn)$ edges. For comparison, Ben-Levy and Parter (SODA'20) obtained, for every fixed $\epsilon >0$ and sufficiently large $k$, an $(O(k^{\epsilon }),O_{\epsilon }(k))$-spanner with $O_{\epsilon ,k}(n^{1+1/k})$ edges. Our result improves the multiplicative stretch from $O(k^{\epsilon })$ to $O(\log k)$ while keeping the additive term linear in $k$, bringing us closer to the goal of $(O(1),O(k))$-spanners. Furthermore, Ben-Levy and Parter obtained multiplicative stretch $O_{\epsilon }(k/d)$ for distances $d\le k^{1-\epsilon }$, for every fixed $\epsilon >0$, and an explicit bound of $7k/d$ for $d\le \sqrt{k}/2$. We achieve $2k/d+O(\log d)$, which is $(2+o(1))k/d$ whenever $d=o(k/\log k)$. Our second result is an improved construction of $k$-hybrid spanners, which guarantee stretch $2k-1$ for adjacent pairs and $k$ for non-adjacent pairs. Parter's original construction uses $O(k^2{n}^{1+1/k})$ edges; we achieve the same guarantees with $O(n^{1+1/k}+kn)$ edges, removing the $k^2$ factor from the $n^{1+1/k}$ term. For every fixed $k$, our edge bound is optimal up to a constant factor under Erdős' girth conjecture.

A preliminary version appeared in SODA 2026