A simpler minimum spanning tree verification algorithm

The problem considered here is that of determining whether a given spanning tree is a minimal spanning tree. In 1984 Komlós presented an algorithm which required only a linear number of comparisons, but nonlinear overhead to determine which comparisons to make. We simplify his algorithm and give a linear-time procedure for its implementation in the unit cost RAM model. The procedure uses table lookup of a few simple functions, which we precompute in time linear in the size of the tree.