Improved graph edit distance approximation with simulated annealing

The present paper is concerned with graph edit distance, which is widely accepted as one of the most flexible graph dissimilarity measures available. A recent algorithmic framework for approximating the graph edit distance overcomes the major drawback of this distance model, viz. its exponential time complexity. Yet, this particular approximation suffers from an overestimation of the true edit distance in general. Overall aim of the present paper is to improve the distance quality of this approximation by means of a post-processing search procedure. The employed search procedure is based on the idea of simulated annealing, which turns out to be particularly suitable for complex optimization problems. In an experimental evaluation on several graph data sets the benefit of this extension is empirically confirmed