Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 38 4 b Solution 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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ib Paper 4 20H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
A cut is a partition of the vertices with the source in and sink in ; its capacity is the sum of capacities of directed edges from to . The max-flow min-cut theorem says that maximum flow value equals minimum cut capacity. With integral capacities, there is an integral max-flow theorem attaining the maximum.
Construct a bipartite graph with one vertex for each row and column and an edge whenever . Add source-to-row and column-to-sink edges of capacity , and give row-to-column edges infinite capacity. An integral flow is precisely a set of independent s, so its maximum value is the largest such set.
A finite-capacity cut places some rows on the sink side and some columns on the source side; these lines cover every , since an uncovered row-to-column edge would cross the cut with infinite capacity. Its capacity is the number of selected lines. Conversely every line cover defines such a cut. Max-flow min-cut therefore proves the maximum number of independent s equals the minimum number of covering lines, the matrix form of König's theorem for bipartite matching.