Physarum can compute shortest paths: A short proof

The purpose of this note is to give a short proof that a standard model for the Physarum polycephalum slime mold correctly computes the shortest path in an undirected weighted graph [V. Bonifaci, K. Mehlhorn, G. Varma, Physarum can compute shortest paths, in: Proc. of the 23rd ACM–SIAM Symposium on...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInformation processing letters Vol. 113; no. 1-2; pp. 4 - 7
Main Author Bonifaci, Vincenzo
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.01.2013
Elsevier Sequoia S.A
Subjects
Algorithms
Combinatorial problems
Data processing
Graphs
Mathematical models
Mold
Molds
Natural algorithm
Proof theory
Proving
Shortest path
Shortest path algorithms
Shortest-path problems
Slime
Studies
Thomsonʼs principle
Shortest path
Combinatorial problems
Natural algorithm
Thomsonʼs principle
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0020-0190
1872-6119
1872-6119
DOI10.1016/j.ipl.2012.09.005

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Summary:The purpose of this note is to give a short proof that a standard model for the Physarum polycephalum slime mold correctly computes the shortest path in an undirected weighted graph [V. Bonifaci, K. Mehlhorn, G. Varma, Physarum can compute shortest paths, in: Proc. of the 23rd ACM–SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, SIAM, 2012, pp. 233–240]. ► Physarum is a slime mold giving rise to a “natural algorithm” for the shortest path problem. ► A standard model for Physarum converges to the shortest path in any network. ► Very mild assumptions on the input data allow for a much shorter proof of convergence.
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ISSN:0020-0190
1872-6119
1872-6119
DOI:10.1016/j.ipl.2012.09.005