In this paper we present a novel approximate algorithm to calculate the top-k closest pairs join query of two large and high dimensional data sets. The algorithm has worst case time complexity OðdnkÞ and space complexity OðndÞ and guarantees a solution within a Oðd1þ1tÞ factor of the exact one, where t 2 {1,2, . . . ,1} denotes the Minkowski metrics Lt of interest and d the dimensionality. It m...