Paper 2, Section I, H

Optimization
Part IB, 2013

Given a network with a source AA, a sink BB, and capacities on directed arcs, define what is meant by a minimum cut.

The mm streets and nn intersections of a town are represented by sets of edges EE and vertices VV of a connected graph. A city planner wishes to make all streets one-way while ensuring it possible to drive away from each intersection along at least kk different streets.

Use a theorem about min-cut and max-flow to prove that the city planner can achieve his goal provided that the following is true:

d(U)kU for all UV,d(U) \geqslant k|U| \text { for all } U \subseteq V,

where U|U| is the size of UU and d(U)d(U) is the number edges with at least one end in UU. How could the planner find street directions that achieve his goal?

[Hint: Consider a network having nodes A,BA, B, nodes a1,,ama_{1}, \ldots, a_{m} for the streets and nodes b1,,bnb_{1}, \ldots, b_{n} for the intersections. There are directed arcs from AA to each and from each bib_{i} to BB. From each aia_{i} there are two further arcs, directed towards bjb_{j} and bjb_{j^{\prime}} that correspond to endpoints of street i.]i .]