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The Dual Problem of Minimum Vertex Cover

The Dual Problem of Minimum Vertex Cover

Learn how the minimum vertex cover problem is the dual of the maximum matching problem.

Suppose neighborhood surveillance is required for a network that consists of streets meeting at junctions. We’d like to install the smallest number of cameras at the junctions so that all the streets can be surveilled. Such a neighborhood can be modeled as a graph by considering the junctions as vertices and the streets as edges.

The problem then is to find the smallest set of vertices (junctions) that provide a cover to all edges (streets), and this problem is known as the minimum vertex cover problem.

Vertex cover

A vertex cover of a graph GG is a set of its vertices such that every edge of GG is incident with at least one vertex in that set. A vertex in the vertex cover is said to cover all the edges ...