An exact algorithm for the minimum rank of a graph

Abstract

The minimum rank of a graph G is the minimum rank over all real symmetric matrices whose off-diagonal sparsity pattern is the same as that of the adjacency matrix of G. In this note we present the first exact algorithm for the minimum rank of an arbitrary graph G. In particular, we use the notion of determinantal rank to transform the minimum rank problem into a system of polynomial equations that can be solved by computational tools from algebraic geometry and commutative algebra. We provide computational results, explore possibilities for improvement, and discuss how the algorithm can be extended to other problems such as finding the minimum positive semidefinite rank of a graph.