Informatics Colloquium 2.4. Approximating edit distance within constant factor in sub-quadratic time
Informatics Colloquium 2. 4. 2019, 14:00 lecture hall D2
prof. Mgr. Michal Koucký, Ph.D., MFF UK
Approximating edit distance within constant factor in sub-quadratic time
Abstract: Edit distance is a measure of similarity of two strings based on the
minimum number of character insertions, deletions, and substitutions required to
transform one string into the other. It has numerous applications in various
fields. The edit distance can be computed exactly using a dynamic programming
algorithm that runs in quadratic time. Andoni, Krauthgamer and Onak (2010) gave
a nearly linear time algorithm that approximates edit distance within
approximation factor poly(\log n). In this talk I will present an algorithm with
running time O(n^{2-2/7}) that approximates the edit distance within a constant
factor.