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Max Flow Min Cut Theorem

This document discusses minimum cuts in graphs and networks. It provides examples of finding the minimum cut in a weighted graph and network by removing edges to disconnect it into two components while minimizing the total weight. The minimum cut found was cut 7 with a capacity of 5, which equals the maximum flow according to the max-flow min-cut theorem.

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Dhiman1001
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128 views3 pages

Max Flow Min Cut Theorem

This document discusses minimum cuts in graphs and networks. It provides examples of finding the minimum cut in a weighted graph and network by removing edges to disconnect it into two components while minimizing the total weight. The minimum cut found was cut 7 with a capacity of 5, which equals the maximum flow according to the max-flow min-cut theorem.

Uploaded by

Dhiman1001
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A cut is a set of edges whose removal divides a connected graph into two disjoint subsets.

There are two variations of a cut: maximum cut and minimum cut.
The minimum cut of a weighted graph is defined as the minimum sum of weights of edges
that, when removed from the graph, divide the graph into two sets.
Let us take an example:

To obtain the minimum cut of this graph, we have to disconnect this graph into two
components by removing the minimum possible number of edges. This can be done by
removing two edges, A↔B and D↔C as shown below.

Let's look at an example of how to find a minimum cut in a network graph.

Cut1:
Capacity: 3+9=12
S={s}
T= {a, b, c, d, t}
Cut 2
Capacity: 3 + 3 = 6
Result of cut:
S = {s, b}
T = {a, c, d, t}
Edge (a, b) is not considered as its
direction is from sink subset towards
source subset. Edges are only counted
if they flow from source towards sink
(left to right)

Cut 3
Capacity: 3 + 2 + 9 = 14
Result of cut:
S = {s, a}
T = {b, c, d, t}

Cut 4
Capacity: 3 + 3 = 6
Result of cut:
S = {s, a, b}
T = {c, d, t}

Cut 5
Capacity: 3 + 0 + 3 = 6
Result of cut:
S = {s, a, b, d}
T = {c, t}
Edge (c, d) is not considered as its
direction is from sink subset towards
source subset. Edges are only counted
if they flow from source towards sink
(left to right)

Cut 6
Capacity: 3 + 4 + 2 = 9
Result of cut:
S = {s, a, b, c}
T = {d, t}
Cut 7
Capacity: 2 + 3 = 5
Result of cut:
S = {s, a, b, c, d}
T = {t}

Cut Capacity
Cut-1 12
Cut-2 6
Cut-3 14
Cut-4 6
Cut-5 6
Cut-6 9
Cut-7 5

Cut-7 is the minimal cut. Value of maximum flow is equal to capacity of minimal cut. Hence,
Max flow = Min cut = 5
Max Flow Min Cut Theorem
The max-flow min-cut theorem is the network flow theorem that says, maximum flow from
the source node to sink node in a given graph will always be equal to the minimum sum of
weights of edges which if removed disconnects the graph into two components i.e. size of the
minimum cut of the graph.
In other words, the max-flow min-cut theorem states that, the maximum flow passing from the
source node to the sink node is equal to the size of the minimum cut.
The max-flow from source to sink = the min-cut necessary to separate source from sink.

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