Integer priority queues with decrease key in constant time and the single source shortest paths problem

Abstract

We consider Fibonacci heap style integer priority queues supporting insert and decrease key operations in constant time. We present a deterministic linear space solution that with n integer keys support delete in O(log log n) time. If the integers are in the range [0,N), we can also support delete in O(log log N) time.Even for the special case of monotone priority queues, where the minimum has to be non-decreasing, the best previous bounds on delete were O((log n)1/(3-e)) and O((log N)1/(4-e)). These previous bounds used both randomization and amortization. Our new bounds a deterministic, worst-case, with no restriction to monotonicity, and exponentially faster.As a classical application, for a directed graph with n nodes and m edges with non-negative integer weights, we get single source shortest paths in O(m+n log log n) time, or O(m+n log log C) if C is the maximal edge weight. The later solves an open problem of Ahuja, Mehlhorn, Orlin, and Tarjan from 1990.