Glossary

Maximum matching

A maximum matching in a graph is a matching in that graph that contains at least as many nodes as any other possible matching. Because a perfect matching contains every node in a graph, perfect matchings are always maximum matchings by definition; however, although every graph will contain (at least one) maximum matching, only some graphs possess perfect matchings.

The figure below illustrates different maximum matchings (shown in red) from three different graphs. Note that none of these graphs has a perfect matching.

Maximum Matching

A maximum matching of basepair edges in a bonding graph corresponding to an RNA string $s$ represents one way of forming as many base pairs of nucleotides in $s$ as possible when creating a secondary structure of the underlying RNA strand, as shown below for the RNA string "CAGCGUGAUCAC".

Maximum Matching in Bonding Graph

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