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"Given a graph G, the remoteness of a vertex v is the distance from v to the vertex u that is farthest from v in G. That is, the shortest path from v to u is as long as possible. A vertex of G with the smallest remoteness is called a middle vertex of G" Find the middle on O(n+m) where n,m are the number of vertices and edges respectively

I have this one idea and was wondering if it is valid: Start with the tree, remove all leaves on the tree. Repeat this until we have either one vertex left or we have to vertices joined by an edge. These vertices will have the shortest longest path. As these 2/1 vertices will be on the longest path/diameter of the graph and be in the middle of it. So these are middle vertices. I have applied this to some example trees and got the correct answer. Is it valid? Thanks

user438409385
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1 Answers1

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You can find the diameter of the tree, and pick the middle vertex (or one of its two middle vertices). A simpler linear time algorithm to find a diameter would be:

  • rooting the tree arbitrarily
  • find a maximum depth leaf $u$
  • find the leaf $v$ farthest from $u$ (either by rooting the tree in $u$ or using BFS).

The algorithm you describe is also correct, because a middle vertex of the tree is also a vertex $v$ such that the tree rooted in $v$ has minimal height $h$. Removing leaves means reducing the height by one (and the root is necessarily removed last, because the tree has two children of height $h-1$ and $h-1-\varepsilon$, with $\varepsilon\in \{0,1\}$, otherwise using another root would reduce its height).

It can indeed be run in linear time, but not using naive data structures.

Nathaniel
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