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Algorithm 457: finding all cliques of an undirected graph
Open accessAbstract
bttroductian.A maximal complete subgraph (clique) is a complete subgraph that is not contained in any other complete subgraph.A recent paper [1] describes a number of techniques to find maximal complete subgraphs of a given undirected graph.In this paper, we present two backtracking algorithms, using a branchand-bound technique [4] to cut off branches that cannot lead to a clique.The first version is a straightforward implementation of the basic algorithm.It is mainly presented to illustrate the method used.This version generates cliques in alphabetic (lexicographic) order.The second version is derived from the first and generates cliques in a rather unpredictable order in an attempt to minimize the number of branches to be traversed.This version tends to produce the larger cliques first and to generate sequentially cliques having a large common intersection.The detailed algorithm for version 2 is presented here. Description of the algorithm--Version 1.Three sets play an important role in the algorithm.(1) The set compsub is the set to be extended by a new point or shrunk by one point on traveling along a branch of the backtracking tree.The points that are eligible to extend compsub, i.e. that are connected to all points in compsub, are collected recursively in the remaining two sets.(2) The set candidates is the set of all points that will in due time serve as an extension to the present configuration of compsub.(3) The set not is the set of all points that have at an earlier stage already served as an extension of the present configuration of compsub and are now explicitly excluded.The reason for maintaining this set trot will soon be made clear.The core of the algorithm consists of a recursively defined extension operator that will be applied to the three sets Just described.It has the duty to generate all extensions of the given configuration of compsub that it can make with the given set of candidates and that do not contain any of the points in not.To put it differently: all extensions of compsub containing any point in not have already been generated.The basic mechanism now consists of the following five steps:
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Metadata
- Authors
- Bron, C., & Kerbosch, J.
- Venue
- Communications of the ACM
- Published
- 1973-09
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 575-577
- ISSN
- 0001-0782 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-7317
- OpenAlex
- W2116007667
- Cited by
- 2,452
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 4.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
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