Operations Research 2025
Abstract Submission

2206. Sparse Solutions for Network Optimization Problems

Invited abstract in session WB-4: Network Optimization, stream Discrete and Combinatorial Optimization.

Wednesday, 10:45-12:15
Room: H6

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Arie Koster
Lehrstuhl II für Mathematik, RWTH Aachen University
2. Pauline Lückemann
RWTH Aachen University

Abstract

A solution is called sparse if there the encoding vector has only few nonzero entries. In many practical applications, sparse solutions have (managerial, operational) benefits that need to be considered in addition to the original objective function. In this presentation, we discuss three fundamental network optimization problems and the impact of sparsity on them: Sparse Shortest Path remains polynomial time solvable, Sparse Maximum Flow and Sparse Minimum Cost Flow become NP-complete in general graphs. For series parallel graphs, we provide polynomial and pseudo-polynomial algorithms for the latter two cases.

Keywords

Status: accepted


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