English

Polynomial-size encoding of all cuts of small value in integer-valued symmetric submodular functions

Combinatorics 2026-03-24 v2 Data Structures and Algorithms

Abstract

We study connectivity functions, that is, integer-valued symmetric submodular functions on a finite ground set attaining 00 on the empty set. For a connectivity function ff on an nn-element set VV and an integer k0k\ge 0, we show that the family of all sets XVX\subseteq V with f(X)=kf(X)=k admits a polynomial-size representation: it can be described by a list of at most O(n4k)O(n^{4k}) items, each consisting of a set to be included, another set to be excluded, and a partition of remaining elements, such that the union of some members of the partition and the set to be included are precisely all sets XX with f(X)=kf(X)=k. We also give an algorithm that constructs this representation in time O(n2k+7γ+n2k+8+n4k+2)O(n^{2k+7}\gamma+n^{2k+8}+n^{4k+2}), where γ\gamma is the oracle time to evaluate ff. This generalizes the low rank structure theorem of Boja\'nczyk, Pilipczuk, Przybyszewski, Soko{\l}owski, and Stamoulis [Low rank MSO, arXiv, 2025] on cut-rank functions on graphs to general connectivity functions. As an application, for fixed kk, we obtain a polynomial-time algorithm for finding a set AA with f(A)=kf(A)=k and a prescribed cardinality constraint on AA.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.10710,
  title  = {Polynomial-size encoding of all cuts of small value in integer-valued symmetric submodular functions},
  author = {Sang-il Oum and Marek Sokołowski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.10710},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

11 pages; fix a minor issue on the definition of an interpolation of a connectivity function