A linear time algorithm for linearizing quadratic and higher-order shortest path problems
针对二次最短路径问题的线性化判定，在无环有向图上提出一种线性时间算法，比此前最优算法快得多，并推广到高阶情形。
An instance of the NP-hard Quadratic Shortest Path Problem (QSPP) is called linearizable iff it is equivalent to an instance of the classic Shortest Path Problem (SPP) on the same input digraph. The linearization problem for the QSPP (LinQSPP) decides whether a given QSPP instance is linearizable and determines the corresponding SPP instance in the positive case. We provide a novel linear time algorithm for the LinQSPP on acyclic digraphs which runs considerably faster than the previously best algorithm. The algorithm is based on a new insight revealing that the linearizability of the QSPP for acyclic digraphs can be seen as a local property. Our approach extends to the more general higher-order shortest path problem.