Improved Approximability Result for Test Set with Small Redundancy

Abstract

Test set with redundancy is one of the focuses in recent bioinformatics research. Set cover greedy algorithm (SGA for short) is a commonly used algorithm for test set with redundancy. This paper proves that the approximation ratio of SGA can be $(2-\frac{1}{2r})\ln n+{3/2}\ln r+O(\ln\ln n)$ by using the potential function technique. This result is better than the approximation ratio $2\ln n$ which directly derives from set multicover, when $r=o(\frac{\ln n}{\ln\ln n})$, and is an extension of the approximability results for plain test set.