Algorithms for three versions of the shortest common superstring problem

Abstract

The input to the Shortest Common Superstring (SCS) problem is a set S of k words of total length n. In the classical version the output is an explicit word SCS(S) in which each s ∈ S occurs at least once. In our paper we consider two versions with multiple occurrences, in which the input includes additional numbers (multiplicities), given in binary. Our output is the word SCS(S) given implicitly in a compact form, since its real size could be exponential. We also consider a case when all input words are of length two, where our main algorithmic tool is a compact representation of Eulerian cycles in multigraphs. Due to exponential multiplicities of edges such cycles can be exponential and the compact representation is needed. Other tools used in our paper are a polynomial case of integer linear programming and a min-plus product of matrices. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.