Strength of the Upper Bounds for the Edge-Weighted Maximum Clique Problem

Abstract: We theoretically and computationally compare the strength of the two main upper bounds from the literature on the optimal value of the Edge-Weighted Maximum Clique Problem (EWMCP). We provide a set of instances for which the ratio between either of the two upper bounds and the optimal value of the EWMCP is unbounded. This result shows that neither of the two upper bounds can give a performance guarantee. In addition, we provide two sets of instances for which the ratio between the two upper bounds, and its reciprocal, are unbounded. This result shows that there are EWMCP instances in which one of the upper bounds can be arbitrarily better than the other one and vice versa. Our theoretical analysis is complemented by extensive computational experiments on two benchmark datasets: the standard DIMACS instances and randomly generated instances, providing practical insights into the empirical strength of the upper bounds.