A capacity scaling algorithm for M-convex submodular flow

This paper presents a faster algorithm for the M-convex submodular flow problem, which is a generalization of the minimum-cost flow problem with an M-convex cost function for the flow-boundary, where an M-convex function is a nonlinear nonseparable discrete convex function on integer points. The algorithm extends the capacity scaling approach for the submodular flow problem by Fleischer, Iwata and McCormick (2002) with the aid of a novel technique of changing the potential by solving maximum submodular flow problems.Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 90C27A preliminary version of this paper has appeared in Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Integer Programming and Combinatorial Optimization (IPCO X), LNCS 3064, Springer-Verlag, 2004, pp. 352–367.