Linear Time Additively Exact Algorithm for Transformation of Chain-Cycle Graphs for Arbitrary Costs of Deletions and Insertions

Abstract

We propose a novel linear time algorithm which, given any directed weighted graphs a and b with vertex degrees 1 or 2, constructs a sequence of operations transforming a into b. The total cost of operations in this sequence is minimal among all possible ones or differs from the minimum by an additive constant that depends only on operation costs but not on the graphs themselves; this difference is small as compared to the operation costs and is explicitly computed. We assume that the double cut and join operations have identical costs, and costs of the deletion and insertion operations are arbitrary strictly positive rational numbers.