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Minimum Spanning Tree Problem 4. [4 points] Minimum Spanning Tree Problem One of

ID: 664273 • Letter: M

Question

Minimum Spanning Tree Problem

4. [4 points] Minimum Spanning Tree Problem One of the basic motivations behind the Minimum Spanning Tree Problem is the goal of designing a spanning network for a set of nodes with minimum total weight. Here we explore another type of objective: designing a spanning network for which the edge with the highest weight is as small as possible. Specifically. let (7 = (V E) be a connected graph with n vertices, in edges, and positive edge costs that you may assume are all distinct. Let (V. T) be a spanning tree of G where T E. We define the bottleneck edge of T to be the edge of T with the greatest weight. A spanning tree T of G is a minimum-bottleneck spanning tree if there is no spanning tree T? of G with a smaller bottleneck edge. Are the following statements true or false? If it is true, give a short explanation (in no more than five sentences please) If it is false, give a counterexample (a) [2 points] Is every minimum-bottleneck tree of G a minimum spanning tree of G? (b) [2 points] Is every minimum spanning tree of G a minimum-bottleneck tree of G?

Explanation / Answer

a) The anser is false.

Explanation with 3 to 4 sentences:

Every MST (Minimum Spanning Tree) must be a MBST (Minimum Bottlenext Spanning Tree) but NOT VICE VERSA. Hence every MBST is NOT a MST. An example graph with

The edges and their weights are listed as follows:

ab = 10, bc = 20, af = 5, cf = 90, df = 75 and ed = 11

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b) True.

Explanation with 3 to 4 sentences:

Every MST (Minimum Spanning Tree) must be a MBST (Minimum Bottleneck Spanning Tree).

After redisgning the same example got a new spanning network as follows:

af = 5, ab = 10, bc = 20, cd=30, ed = 11

Here we are going to acheive a heighest weight of cd = 30 instead of

90 - a huge savings on the weight cost.