Max-Flow Problems

Standard version

Input:

1. A directed graph [math]\displaystyle{ G=(V,A) }[/math].
2. A source node [math]\displaystyle{ s\in V }[/math] and a target (a.k.a. sink) node [math]\displaystyle{ t\in V }[/math].
3. A nonnegative upper bound (a.k.a. capacity) [math]\displaystyle{ u(a) }[/math] for each arc [math]\displaystyle{ a\in A }[/math].

Output: A maximum [math]\displaystyle{ (s,t) }[/math]-flow, that is, a nonnegative value [math]\displaystyle{ f(a) }[/math] for each arc [math]\displaystyle{ a\in A }[/math] such that the following two conditions are fulfilled:

1. Capacity constraint: For each arc [math]\displaystyle{ a\in A }[/math], it is [math]\displaystyle{ f(a)\leq u(a) }[/math].
2. Flow conservation condition: For each node [math]\displaystyle{ v\in V\setminus\{s,t\} }[/math], it is [math]\displaystyle{ \sum_{a=(v,w)\in A}f(a)-\sum_{a=(w,v)\in A}f(a) }[/math].

Generalizations

1. For each arc [math]\displaystyle{ a\in A }[/math], there is a lower bound [math]\displaystyle{ \ell(a) }[/math], and [math]\displaystyle{ f(a)\geq\ell(a) }[/math] is additionally required. The lower bounds need not be nonnegative, so the flow values need not be nonnegative, either. This version may be reduced to the standard version as follows: For eac arc
2. More than one source and more than one target can be reduced to the standard version by adding a super-source node and a super-target node
3. Usually, the term generalized flow' is reserved for the specific generalization in which for each node [math]\displaystyle{ v\in V\setminus\{vs,t\} }[/math], the ratio of the total sum of all incoming flow an the total sum of all outgoing flow is given (in the standard version, this ratio is 1 due to the flow conservation condition).

Remarks

In all variations, assuming that all numbers are integral does not reduce generality.