A strongly polynomial algorithm for generalized flow maximization

A strongly polynomial algorithm is given for the generalized flow maximization problem. It uses a new variant of the scaling technique, called continuous scaling. The main measure of progress is that within a strongly polynomial number of steps, an arc can be identified that must be tight in every dual optimal solution, and thus can be contracted. As a consequence of the result, we also obtain a strongly polynomial algorithm for the linear feasibility problem with at most two nonzero entries per column in the constraint matrix.Comment: minor correction

Min-Cost Flow in Unit-Capacity Planar Graphs

In this paper we give an O~((nm)^(2/3) log C) time algorithm for computing min-cost flow (or min-cost circulation) in unit capacity planar multigraphs where edge costs are integers bounded by C. For planar multigraphs, this improves upon the best known algorithms for general graphs: the O~(m^(10/7) log C) time algorithm of Cohen et al. [SODA 2017], the O(m^(3/2) log(nC)) time algorithm of Gabow and Tarjan [SIAM J. Comput. 1989] and the O~(sqrt(n) m log C) time algorithm of Lee and Sidford [FOCS 2014]. In particular, our result constitutes the first known fully combinatorial algorithm that breaks the Omega(m^(3/2)) time barrier for min-cost flow problem in planar graphs. To obtain our result we first give a very simple successive shortest paths based scaling algorithm for unit-capacity min-cost flow problem that does not explicitly operate on dual variables. This algorithm also runs in O~(m^(3/2) log C) time for general graphs, and, to the best of our knowledge, it has not been described before. We subsequently show how to implement this algorithm faster on planar graphs using well-established tools: r-divisions and efficient algorithms for computing (shortest) paths in so-called dense distance graphs

Polynomial-time highest-gain augmenting path algorithms for the generalized circulation problem

Includes bibliographical references (p. 15-16).Supported in part by NSF. DMS 94-14438 DMS 95-27124 Supported in part by DOE. DE-FG02-92ER25126 Supported as well by grants from UPS and ONR. N00014-96-1-0051by Donald Goldfarb, Zhiying Jin, James B. Orlin

Strongly polynomial algorithm for a class of minimum-cost flow problems with separable convex objectives

A well-studied nonlinear extension of the minimum-cost flow problem is to minimize the objective $\sum_{ij\in E} C_{ij}(f_{ij})$ over feasible flows $f$, where on every arc $ij$ of the network, $C_{ij}$ is a convex function. We give a strongly polynomial algorithm for the case when all $C_{ij}$'s are convex quadratic functions, settling an open problem raised e.g. by Hochbaum [1994]. We also give strongly polynomial algorithms for computing market equilibria in Fisher markets with linear utilities and with spending constraint utilities, that can be formulated in this framework (see Shmyrev [2009], Devanur et al. [2011]). For the latter class this resolves an open question raised by Vazirani [2010]. The running time is $O(m^4\log m)$ for quadratic costs, $O(n^4+n^2(m+n\log n)\log n)$ for Fisher's markets with linear utilities and $O(mn^3 +m^2(m+n\log n)\log m)$ for spending constraint utilities. All these algorithms are presented in a common framework that addresses the general problem setting. Whereas it is impossible to give a strongly polynomial algorithm for the general problem even in an approximate sense (see Hochbaum [1994]), we show that assuming the existence of certain black-box oracles, one can give an algorithm using a strongly polynomial number of arithmetic operations and oracle calls only. The particular algorithms can be derived by implementing these oracles in the respective settings