Integral Biflow Maximization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a polynomial-time algorithm for finding maximum integral biflows in a special class of graphs called Seymour graphs, based on their structural properties, extending classical max-flow min-cut theory.

Contribution

It provides the first combinatorial polynomial-time algorithm for maximum integral biflows in Seymour graphs, leveraging their structural characterization.

Findings

Algorithm successfully computes maximum integral biflows in polynomial time.

Structural description of Seymour graphs underpins the algorithm.

Extends max-flow min-cut theory to biflow problems in special graphs.

Abstract

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph with four distinguished vertices, two sources $s_1, s_2$ and two sinks $t_1,t_2$, let $c:\, E \rightarrow \mathbb Z_+$ be a capacity function, and let ${\cal P}$ be the set of all simple paths in $G$ from $s_1$ to $t_1$ or from $s_2$ to $t_2$. A biflow (or $2$-commodity flow) in $G$ is an assignment $f:\, {\cal P}\rightarrow \mathbb R_+$ such that $\sum_{e \in Q \in {\cal P}}\, f(Q) \le c(e)$ for all $e \in E$, whose value is defined to be $\sum_{Q \in {\cal P}}\, f(Q)$. A bicut in $G$ is a subset $K$ of $E$ that contains at least one edge from each member of ${\cal P}$, whose capacity is $\sum_{e\in K}\, c(e)$. In 1977 Seymour characterized, in terms of forbidden structures, all graphs $G$ for which the max-biflow (integral) min-bicut theorem holds true (that is, the maximum value of an integral biflow is equal to the minimum capacity of a bicut for every capacity function $c$); such a graph $G$ is referred to as a Seymour graph. Nevertheless, his proof is not algorithmic in nature. In this paper we present a combinatorial polynomial-time algorithm for finding maximum integral biflows in Seymour graphs, which relies heavily on a structural description of such graphs.