A scalable parallel union-find algorithm for distributed memory computers

Abstract

The Union-Find algorithm is used for maintaining a number of non-overlapping sets from a finite universe of elements. The algorithm has applications in a number of areas including the computation of spanning trees, sparse linear algebra, and in image processing. Although the algorithm is inherently sequential there has been some previous efforts at constructing parallel implementations. These have mainly focused on shared memory computers. In this paper we present the first scalable parallel implementation of the Union-Find algorithm suitable for distributed memory computers. Our new parallel algorithm is based on an observation of how the Find part of the sequential algorithm can be executed more efficiently. We show the efficiency of our implementation through a series of tests to compute spanning forests of very large graphs. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.