How Trees on Atoms of Subset Algebras Define Minimal Forests and Their Growth

Abstract

A complete description is given of how minimal trees on atoms of the algebra of subsets $\mathfrak{A}_k$ generated by minimal spanning $k$-component forests of a weighted digraph $V$ determine the form of these forests and how forests grow with increasing number of arcs (that is with a decrease in the number of trees). Precise bounds are established on what can be extracted about the tree structure of the original graph if the minimal trees on the atoms of a single algebra $\mathfrak{A}_k$ are known, and also what minimum spanning forests with fewer components can be constructed based on this, and what exactly additional information is required to determine minimum spanning forests consisting of even fewer components.