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arXiv · 1511.06000

A Duality Based 2-Approximation Algorithm for Maximum Agreement Forest

Frans Schalekamp·Anke van Zuylen·Suzanne van der Ster
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Abstract

We give a 2-approximation algorithm for the Maximum Agreement Forest problem on two rooted binary trees. This NP-hard problem has been studied extensively in the past two decades, since it can be used to compute the Subtree Prune-and-Regraft (SPR) distance between two phylogenetic trees. Our result improves on the very recent 2.5-approximation algorithm due to Shi, Feng, You and Wang (2015). Our algorithm is the first approximation algorithm for this problem that uses LP duality in its analysis.

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Frans Schalekamp, Anke van Zuylen, Suzanne van der Ster. 2016-04-27. A Duality Based 2-Approximation Algorithm for Maximum Agreement Forest. https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.06000

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