Computing minimum cuts by randomized search heuristics

We study the minimum s-t-cut problem in graphs with costs on the edges in the context of evolutionary algorithms. Minimum cut problems belong to the class of basic network optimization problems that occur as crucial subproblems in many real-world optimization problems and have a variety of applications in several different areas. We prove that there exist instances of the minimum s-t-cut problem that cannot be solved by standard single-objective evolutionary algorithms in reasonable time. On the other hand, we develop a bi-criteria approach based on the famous maximum-flow minimum-cut theorem that enables evolutionary algorithms to find an optimum solution in expected polynomial time. Categories and Subject Descriptors: F.2 [Theory of Computation]: Analysis of Algorithms and Problem Complexity General Terms: Theory, Algorithms, Performance

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: GECCO
• Authors: Frank Neumann, Joachim Reichel, Martin Skutella
• Keywords: Evolutionary Algorithms, GECCO 2008, Minimum Cut Problems, Minimum S-t-cut Problem, Optimization