{"id":"hexagon/2610.00337","pdf":"https://hexagonmath.org/pdf/2610.00337v1","url":"https://hexagonmath.org/abs/2610.00337v1","tags":["cs.DS","msc:05C69","msc:05C70","msc:68Q25","msc:90C27","Approximation Algorithm","Bipartite Layers","Ensemble Heuristics","Linear Time","Maximal Matching"],"score":0,"title":"An Approximate Solution to the Minimum Vertex Cover Problem: The Salvador Algorithm","domain":"cs.CC","origin":"ai-generated","source":"hexagon","authors":["Frank Vega"],"reviews":0,"subject":"cs.CC","summary":"Minimum Vertex Cover has a classical linear-time ratio of $2$, and under the Unique Games Conjecture no polynomial-time algorithm achieves a fixed ratio below $2$ unless $\\mathrm{P}=\\mathrm{NP}$. We present version 0.1.4 of \\textsc{Salvador}, a linear-time ensemble of seventeen strategies, numbered in the order in which they are computed: twelve base strategies (component amplification before a maximal matching, the maximal matching itself, degree and weight heuristics, reductions to auxiliary problems that are solved exactly, a decomposition into bipartite layers, a weighted subdivision…","category":"research","comments":0,"disputed":false,"division":"cs","mentions":0,"discussed":0,"published":"2026-10-18","reactions":{},"withdrawn":false,"authorship":"no-human-author-claimed","formalized":false,"human_understanding":"all"}