Inapproximability of the Minimum Biclique Edge Partition Problem

Abstract

For a graph G, a biclique edge partition S_BP(G) is a collection of bicliques (complete bipartite subgraphs) B_i such that each edge of G is contained in exactly one B_i. The Minimum Biclique Edge Partition Problem (MBEPP) asks for S_BP(G) with the minimum size. In this paper, we show that for arbitrary small ε > 0, (6053/6052 - ε)-approximation of MBEPP is NP-hard.