Questions tagged [minimum-cuts]

A cut is a partition of a graph's nodes into two classes. Each cut is associated with a cut-set, the set of edges straddling the cut. For more, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_cut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoer%E2%80%93Wagner_algorithm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karger%27s_algorithm

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Minimum-cut with minimum number of edges

I am sure many folks here know the famous min-cut max-flow theorem - the capacity of the minimum cut is equal to the maximum flow from a given source, s, to a given sink, t, in a graph. Firstly, let'...
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Min-cut in graph with demands/lower bounds

This week I read something about network flow from Algorithm Design. But I am confused about some concepts. We say, if a graph G contains some nodes with demands, positive or negative, how to define ...
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find the union of all min cuts of a flow network

I'm trying to solve the following question : Given a flow network $N = (G=(V,E),c,s,t)$. Let $\mathcal F$ be the set of all minimum cuts. Prove that $\mathcal F$ is closed under intersections and ...
giorgioh's user avatar
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Finding a minimum cut with an upper bound on the set sizes

In the (unweighted) minimum k-cut problem, the goal is to partition the nodes in a given graph to at least $k$ subsets, such that the number of edges between different subsets is as small as possible. ...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
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Karger's min-cut (contraction): Combinatorial argument for success probability?

The contraction algorithm for min-cut is: pick an edge $(u,v)$ uniformly at random, and "contract" it by merging $u$ and $v$ into a single vertex, deleting self-loops. Continue until two vertices ...
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Karger's min cut and tips on bounding nonlinear recurrences

I was recently working on an old qualifying exam problem asking us to generalize Karger's randomized global min cut algorithm to that of a global min $k$-cut. I recalled the strategy of running a ...
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Smallest $s$-component in mincut

Suppose there is a directed graph $G=(V,E)$, with source $s$ and sink $t$, and I compute the max flow on it. Then I know that I can find a min-cut $(A,B)$, by letting $A$ be the set of vertices that ...
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is it possible to find the maximal min cut in polynomial time?

A maximal minimum cut is a minimum capacity cut with the largest number of edges.
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Forcing an edge to be in S-T min-cut

Given a flow-network $N=(G,c,s,t)$ and an edge $e=(u,v)$, I am trying to build an algorithm that finds a minimum $(S,T)$ cut in the given network, that includes e. So, I tried couple of steps, first, ...
Yoav Ben Haim's user avatar
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Does there exist an algorithm / software that finds optimal graph partition while enforcing contiguity on a subgraph?

I am interested in the traditional graph partitioning problem, which roughly speaking seeks to obtain a partition of a graph into a number of components, in which each component has about the same ...
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The Cut Lemma for graphs with non-distinct edges

In my introductory algorithms class I recently learned about the Cut Lemma and how it can be used to prove correctness for many Minimum Spanning Tree algorithms like Kruskal's and Prim's. In class, to ...
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Dominator tree with edges annotated by min-cut size

Consider the dominator tree of, say, the graph of objects in memory, computed by a memory profiler - one of the most powerful memory leak debugging features, I believe. The dominator tree tells you "...
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Karger's algorithm: why does every vertex have degree at least the number of edges crossing a min cut?

I'm currently watching a video on the analysis of Krager's Algorithm, and I am confused about something. The analysis goes as follows: Fix a min cut $(A,B)$. Let $k$ = # of edges crossing $(A,B)$ , ...
FrostyStraw's user avatar
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Max-flow from a to c is at least the minimum of max-flow from a to b and max-flow from b to c

Given a directed weighted graph $G = (V, E, w)$, we refer to the max flow when $x$ is the source and $y$ is the sink in the flow network of the graph $G$ as $f_{x,y}$. I'm searching for a formal proof ...
Mohamad S.'s user avatar
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Path graph partitioning, minimizing cut while minimizing maximum total node weight in each part

Suppose there is a path (linear) graph $G = (V, E)$ where $V = \{0, \ldots, n - 1\}$ and $E=\{(0, 1), (1, 2), \ldots, (n - 2, n - 1)\}$, with edge weights $w_e : E \to \mathbb{N}$ and vertex weights $...
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Edmonds-Karp Algorithm with both directed and undirected edges?

How would this work and be implemented? If you have directed edges pointing away from the source to a bunch of other verticies, and directed edges pointing from those vertices to a sink, but have ...
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How can maximum number of minimum cuts of a graph be exactly $n \choose 2$?

According to my instructor, $n\choose 2$ is the maximum number of minimum cuts we can have on a graph. To prove this, he showed the lower bound using an n-cycle graph. To prove the upper bound, he ...
Shuvam Shah's user avatar
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Maximum Changes that don't Break the Build

Let's say I have a set of changes, e.g. replacing foo with bar in a codebase, how do I programmatically discover the largest set ...
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Will the Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm always return the same min-cut for any source-sink from one side of the min-cut to the other?

I was playing around with https://visualgo.net/en/maxflow when I realized a pattern: Take this graph, for example. We notice that the min-cut divides the graph into two sets of nodes: {0, 2, 3, 6} ...
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Properties of Gomory-Hu trees

Given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ a Gomory-Hu tree $T$ for $G$ has the following properties: $T$ has a node for each vertex in the graph G and each edge in the tree corresponds to a minimum cut ...
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Why 2 different edge min-cuts in an undirected multigraph must be completely disjoint?

For the proof of a maximum of (n 2) min-cuts in any n-vertex undirected multigraph using the random contraction algorithm, we need to know that no min-cut shares an edge with another different one. ...
Hemispherr's user avatar
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Max flow not min cut?

I understand the relation between max flow and min cut, however I made this (simplified) graph, and I cant figure out why max flow seems to be different from my min cut. Im probably overlooking ...
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Size of the maximum matching in arbitrary graph

I am asked to find a probabilistic algorithm to determine the size of the maximum matching of an arbitrary simple undirected graph $ G $. My claim is that, it is equivalent to find a global min cut on ...
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important separators

Given a graph G and an important (X,Y)-separator S, why is it true that for every edge e in S the set of S\e is an important (X,Y)-separator in G\e Important (X,Y) cut is defined as follows: S is an ...
user170383's user avatar
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Algorithm for finding cut vertex and bridge in directed graph [closed]

In un-directed graph it is easy to find cut vertex and bridge but in directed graph removing cut vertex/bridge must increase number of strongly connected componenets.
Dumb Scientist's user avatar
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Decide whether a flow graph has a single min-cut

The problem is whether a graph (which we represent as a flow network) has a single min-cut, or there could be multiple min cuts with the same maximum flow value, I've yet to encounter a well explained ...
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Graph with $\Theta(2^n)$ minimum $(s, t)$-cuts

Is there any graph with $\Theta(2^n)$ minimum $(s, t)$-cuts? Given an undirected graph $G = (V, E)$ and two distinct vertices $s$ and $t$ of $G$. A minimum $(s, t)$-cut is a $(S, T)$ cut of G which ...
curiouscupcake's user avatar
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Given a network flow find if there's a min cut that only one of the given edges lay on it

Given a network flow $G=(V,E)$ with capacity function $C$ source $s$ and hole $t$, and given 2 edges $e_1 , e_2 $. Find if there exists a min-cut such that only one of the edges belongs to the min-...
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A graph is strongly connected iff every non-trivial cut contains an edge

As the title states, I am asked to prove that a directed graph $G=(V,E)$ is strongly connected iff for all non-empty subsets $\emptyset \neq S \subset V$, the cut $\delta(S) \neq\emptyset$, where $$\...
Aishgadol's user avatar
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Can Stoer-Wagner find min s-t cut for given s and t?

Stoer-Wagner algorithm can be used to find global minimum cut in a graph. I'm wondering if it could be adapted to find a minimum s-t cut, given s and t. We can start a single phase with {s} but there'...
Bolek's user avatar
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Given max-flow determine if edge is in a min-cut

We were given an exam question of: Given a flow network G=(V,E) with integer edge capacities, a max-flow f in G, and a specific edge e in E, design a linear time algorithm that determines whether or ...
Scooter2000's user avatar
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All nodes reachable from source in residual network of any max flow are included in $S$ for any min-cut $(S,T)$

Let $G = (V,E)$ be a directed graph with source $s$ and sink $t$ and $s \neq t$. For each edge $e \in E$, we have $c(e) \in \Bbb N$. Also, we are given a max flow function $f$ on that network. Let $...
Riem's user avatar
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Minimum cost of wood for woodworking project problem

This is a fun one, I really can't wrap my head around it. It's like an n-sum problem combined w/ a knapsack problem and I cant seem to find a solution. I'm currently building a cabinet, and had just ...
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Number of minimum cuts in a graph

Situation : I started watching Algorithm Lectures from Stanford University (Corsera). I stuck on one video lecture(https://www.coursera.org/lecture/algorithms-divide-conquer/counting-minimum-cuts-...
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Set of DAG vertices disconnecting a vertex from forbidden vertices

Let $v$ be a vertex with in-degree 0 in an (acyclic) DAG $G$, and let $F$ be a subset of $G$'s vertices (the "forbidden") vertices. Now suppose $U$ is a set of vertices such that every path from $v$ ...
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Is there an FPRAS for the number of min st cuts in general graphs?

Provan and Ball [1] showed that the problem of counting the number of minimum st cuts is #P-Complete. What is known about the problem of approximating the number of min st cuts? Is it possible to get ...
allrtaken's user avatar
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645 views

a cut containing exactly one edge in each path

Given a digraph with a source $s$ and target $t$, must there be an edge cut which contains exactly one edge in every path from $s$ to $t$? I'm not interested in a minimum cut; any cut would do. If ...
Larry Moss's user avatar
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106 views

Network Flow - qualities of saturated edges

While I know that every edge is fully saturated in every min-cut of a network flow, I'm trying to get some intuition when the converse is true. I can find an example using edges with infinite capacity,...
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Max flow in bipartite network where all vertices on the left hand side have degree exactly $2$

I have a flow question which I'm stumped on but seems like there should be an answer that I am not seeing. Consider a network with a start $s$ and an end $t$ and a bipartite graph $L \cup R$. $s$ is ...
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What are the locally optimal points in an LP formulation of the max flow problem?

I'm taking a grad level algorithms course and we just ended the course talking about linear programming, and we had previously talked about the max flow/min cut problem. Our professor said that the ...
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Can the Global Minimum Cut problem for a directed graph be solved using the minimum s-t-Cut

I am using the following definition of the Global Minimum Cut problem: Given a graph $G = (V,E)$, a Cut of $G$ is a partition of $V$ into two subsets $(A,B)$. A cut-edge of $C$ is an edge $(u,v) \in E$...
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What does a recursive min s,t-cut optimize?

Consider the following algorithm sketch: Given an edge-weighted directed acyclic graph $G = (V, E, w : E \to \mathbb{N})$, adjoin a temporary source $s$ and sink $t$ to get $G' = (V', E', w')$. $G'$ ...
taktoa's user avatar
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Finding s-t min-cut of undirected graph

Given an undirected graph with non-negative edge weights, and two vertices $s,t$ in the graph. I would like to find the minimal cut such that $s$ and $t$ are on different sides of the cut. For example ...
AsaridBeck91's user avatar
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Heuristic algorithm for the minimum weighted s-t cut with linear running time

To the best of my knowledge, the best algorithm for the minimum s-t cut in a weighted digraph is the Goldberg push-relabel algorithm with $O(n^{2}\sqrt{m})$ time complexity. I'm interested in solving ...
Victor Hugo's user avatar
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Minimum-cut with balanced and limited number of nodes in each partition: Does this have an efficient solution or even a name?

I'd like to remove the minimum number of edges from an undirected unweighted graph to partition the nodes into an arbitrary number of connected components $S_1$, $S_2$,$S_3$,... $S_k$ while maximizing ...
Navin's user avatar
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LP realaxation for multicut problem with polynomial number of constraints

The integer linear programming formulation for the multicut problem for the given graph $G = (V,E)$ and distinguished source-sink pairs of vertices $(s_1,t_1),...,(s_k,t_k)$ is: \begin{alignat}{3} \...
Dandelion's user avatar
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Minimum number of cuts to divide a rectangle

We're given a big rectangle, and a list of small rectangles contained inside it, with their vertex coordinates. We want a list of the minimum number of lines defined by a pair of points (x,y) that ...
E. Williams's user avatar
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Minimum number of words to define any other

I'm interested in finding the minimum number of words needed to define some fraction (perhaps 95%) of the words occurring in an English dictionary (while ignoring the challenges of disambiguating ...
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Finding the nodes in the source and sink side of a min-cut

We are learning of the Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm for max-flow/min-cut, and I have been wondering of the following question: How do we exactly find which nodes are on the "sink" side of the ...
Green Ideology's user avatar
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Increasing the weights of all edges in an undirected graph makes a minimum cut still minimum

We have an undirected graph, with a weight function and a minimum cut. If you raise the weights of all the edges by one, the minimum cut remains minimal even with the new weights. I know this is ...
Adi Lapp's user avatar