A lasso-alternative to Dijkstra's algorithm for identifying short paths in networks

Anqi Dong; Amirhossein Taghvaei; Tryphon T. Georgiou

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arXiv · 2511.22745

A lasso-alternative to Dijkstra's algorithm for identifying short paths in networks

Anqi Dong·Amirhossein Taghvaei·Tryphon T. Georgiou

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Abstract

We revisit the problem of finding the shortest path between two selected vertices of a graph and formulate this as an $\ell_1$-regularized regression -- Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (lasso). We draw connections between a numerical implementation of this lasso-formulation, using the so-called LARS algorithm, and a more established algorithm known as the bi-directional Dijkstra. Appealing features of our formulation include the applicability of the Alternating Direction of Multiplier Method (ADMM) to the problem to identify short paths, and a relatively efficient update to topological changes.

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Anqi Dong, Amirhossein Taghvaei, Tryphon T. Georgiou. 2025-11-27. A lasso-alternative to Dijkstra's algorithm for identifying short paths in networks. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.22745

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