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Suppose $C_1, \ldots, C_m$ are subsets of $\{1, \ldots, n\}$. The goal is to find the smallest subcollection of $C_1, ..., C_m$ such that each element of $\{1, \ldots, n\}$ appears at least $k$ times in this subcollection.

If $k=1$, this is set cover. I would be interested to learn how to prove NP-hardness for $k=2$ and $k=3$.

YeLu
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1 Answers1

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Hine: Given an instance of set cover, add $k-1$ copies of the set $\{1,\ldots,n\}$.

Yuval Filmus
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