Hamiltonian Path Problem Article Index for
Hamiltonian
Website Links For
Hamiltonian
 

Information About

Hamiltonian Path Problem




There is a simple relation between the two problems. The Hamiltonian path problem for graph G is equivalent to the Hamiltonian cycle problem in a graph '''H''' obtained from G by adding a new vertex and connecting it to all vertices of G.

The Hamiltonian cycle problem is a special case of the Traveling Salesman Problem , obtained by setting the distance between two cities to unity if they are adjacent and infinity otherwise.

The directed and undirected Hamiltonian cycle problems were two of Karp's 21 NP-complete Problems . Garey and Johnson showed shortly afterwards in 1974 that the directed Hamiltonian cycle problem remains NP-complete for Planar Graph s and the undirected Hamiltonian cycle problem remains NP-complete for Cubic Planar Graph s.


QUADRATIC ALGORITHM FOR DIRAC (DENSE) GRAPHS


If the degree of every vertex is greater than or equal to v/2, then the problem can be resolved in quadratic time. See {Link without Title} for details.


RANDOMIZED ALGORITHM

A randomized algorithm for Hamiltonian path that is fast on most graphs is the following:
Start from a random vertex, and continue if there is a neighbor not visited. If there are no more unvisited neighbors, and the path formed isn't Hamiltonian, pick a neighbor uniformly at random, and rotate using that neighbor as a pivot. Then, continue the algorithm at the new end of the path.


SEE ALSO



EXTERNAL LINKS




REFERENCES