41026@AAAI

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#1 Approximation Algorithm for Constrained k-Center Clustering: A Local Search Approach [PDF] [Copy] [Kimi] [REL]

Authors: Chaoqi Jia, Longkun Guo, Kewen Liao, Zhigang Lu, Chao Chen, Jason Xue

Clustering is a long-standing research problem and a fundamental tool in AI and data analysis. The traditional k-center problem, known as a fundamental theoretical challenge in clustering, has a best possible approximation ratio of 2, and any improvement to a ratio of 2 - ε would imply P = NP. In this work, we study the constrained k-center clustering problem, where instance-level cannot-link (CL) and must-link (ML) constraints are incorporated as background knowledge. Although general CL constraints significantly increase the hardness of approximation, previous work has shown that disjoint CL sets permit constant-factor approximations. However, whether local search can achieve such a guarantee in this setting remains an open question. To this end, we propose a novel local search framework based on a transformation to a dominating matching set problem, achieving the best possible approximation ratio of 2. The experimental results on both real-world and synthetic datasets demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms baselines in solution quality.

Subject: AAAI.2026 - Search and Optimization