A faster deterministic algorithm for minimum spanning trees

A deterministic algorithm for computing a minimum spanning tree of a connected graph is presented. Its running time is O(m /spl alpha/ log /spl alpha/), where /spl alpha/=/spl alpha/(m,n) is a functional inverse of Ackermann's function and n (resp. m) is the number of vertices (resp. edges). This improves on the previous, ten-year old bound of (roughly) O(m log log* m).