Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/iii/paper-38/4/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 38 4 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Let the bipartite graph have parts . Add a source , a sink , capacity-one edges for and for , and capacity on each original edge directed . Use the max-flow min-cut theorem: maximum flow value equals minimum cut capacity. Also use Integrality of the Ford-Fulkerson algorithm: integral capacities admit an integral maximum flow, found by integral augmenting paths.
An integral flow selects a matching in a graph, because each left and right vertex carries at most one unit. Conversely every matching gives a unit flow along its selected paths. Hence maximum flow value equals maximum matching cardinality.
A minimum cut has capacity at most , whereas crossing even one original edge would cost . For its source side , no edge of the original graph runs from to . Thereforeis a vertex cover, and its cardinality is exactly the cut capacity. Conversely, given any cover , use . No original edge crosses this cut, because both its endpoints would otherwise be outside the cover; its capacity is . Thus minimum cut capacity equals minimum cover size, proving König's theorem for bipartite matching:For the algorithm, repeatedly find augmenting paths in the residual network, then take to be the vertices reachable from . Each integral augmentation increases flow by at least one; the total value is at most . Each reachability search takes time, so this procedure takes time. The network uses only polynomially many edges and integer capacities, yielding the requested polynomial-time algorithm and an explicit cover.
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