Minimum Degree Spanning Tree: $(1+\epsilon,1)$-Approximation in Near-Linear Time

Abstract

The minimum degree spanning tree problem is a classic NP-hard problem whose optimal approximation guarantee was established since the early 1990s: F\"urer and Raghavachari [FR92] gave an $\tilde O(mn)$-time algorithm that computes a spanning tree with maximum degree $\Delta^\star+1$, where $\Delta^\star$ denotes the optimum value. Whether similarly strong guarantees can be achieved in near-linear time has remained open for over three decades. We give the first near-linear-time algorithm that computes a spanning tree with maximum degree $\lceil (1+\epsilon)\Delta^\star\rceil+1$ in $\tilde O(m/\epsilon^2)$ time. Prior near-linear-time algorithms either achieved the weaker bound $\lceil (1+\epsilon)\Delta^\star\rceil + O(\log n/\epsilon^2)$ [DHZ20] or required dense graphs with $m\ge n^{7/4}$ [CQT21,BFW26]. Using the same framework, our algorithm can also compute a spanning tree with maximum degree $\Delta^\star+1$ in $\tilde O(mn^{2/3})$ time, improving upon the recent $\tilde O(mn^{3/4})$-time algorithm of [BFW26]. These two results strictly improve all previous construction algorithms for the minimum degree spanning tree problem.