Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/7/b/solution
Past exam of the short options course of the University of Oxford 2017 7 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
Use a triangle with vertices and weights , . The unique shortest -path is , of weight one, while the unique shortest -path is , also of weight one. A shortest-path tree would therefore need all three edges of the triangle. This is impossible for a tree.
Thus negative edge weights can prevent a shortest-path tree, even though the shortest simple path to each individual vertex exists. This is the example in signed edge weights can prevent a shortest-path tree.
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