English

Minimum Cuts in Directed Graphs via $\sqrt{n}$ Max-Flows

Data Structures and Algorithms 2021-04-19 v1

Abstract

We give an algorithm to find a mincut in an nn-vertex, mm-edge weighted directed graph using O~(n)\tilde O(\sqrt{n}) calls to any maxflow subroutine. Using state of the art maxflow algorithms, this yields a directed mincut algorithm that runs in O~(mn+n2)\tilde O(m\sqrt{n} + n^2) time. This improves on the 30 year old bound of O~(mn)\tilde O(mn) obtained by Hao and Orlin for this problem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2104.07898,
  title  = {Minimum Cuts in Directed Graphs via $\sqrt{n}$ Max-Flows},
  author = {Ruoxu Cen and Jason Li and Danupon Nanongkai and Debmalya Panigrahi and Thatchaphol Saranurak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.07898},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T01:13:49.285Z