Finding the k shortest paths

Abstract

We give algorithms for finding the k shortest paths (not required to be simple) connecting a pair of vertices in a digraph. Our algorithms output an implicit representation of these paths in a digraph with n vertices and m edges, in time O(m+n log n+k). We can also find the k shortest paths from a given source s to each vertex in the graph, in total time O(m+n log n+kn). We describe applications to dynamic programming problems including the knapsack problem, sequence alignment, and maximum inscribed polygons.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>