Matching is as easy as matrix inversion

Abstract

A new algorithm for finding a maximum matching in a general graph is presented; its special feature being that the only computationally non-trivial step required in its execution is the inversion of a single integer matrix. Since this step can be parallelized, we get a simple parallel (RNC2) algorithm. At the heart of our algorithm lies a probabilistic lemma, the isolating lemma. We show applications of this lemma to parallel computation and randomized reductions.