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Optimal 3-terminal cuts and linear programming

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Abstract

Given an undirected graph G=(V,E) and three specified terminal nodes t 1,t 2,t 3, a 3-cut is a subset A of E such that no two terminals are in the same component of G\A. If a non-negative edge weight c e is specified for each e∈E, the optimal 3-cut problem is to find a 3-cut of minimum total weight. This problem is -hard, and in fact, is max--hard. An approximation algorithm having performance guarantee has recently been given by Călinescu, Karloff, and Rabani. It is based on a certain linear-programming relaxation, for which it is shown that the optimal 3-cut has weight at most times the optimal LP value. It is proved here that can be improved to , and that this is best possible. As a consequence, we obtain an approximation algorithm for the optimal 3-cut problem having performance guarantee . In addition, we show that is best possible for this algorithm.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematics and Statistics, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1S 5B6

    Kevin K. H. Cheung

  2. Department of Combinatorics & Optimization, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada, N2L 3G1

    William H. Cunningham

  3. Hong Kong Monetary Authority, 55/F, Two International Finance Centre, 8 Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong

    Lawrence Tang

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  1. Kevin K. H. Cheung
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  2. William H. Cunningham
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  3. Lawrence Tang
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Correspondence to Kevin K. H. Cheung.

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Research of this author was supported by NSERC PGSB.

Research supported by a grant from NSERC of Canada.

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Cheung, K., Cunningham, W. & Tang, L. Optimal 3-terminal cuts and linear programming. Math. Program. 106, 1–23 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-005-0668-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-005-0668-2

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