Experimental study of minimum cut algorithms
Recently, several new algorithms have been developed for the minimum cut problem that substantially improve worst-case time bounds for the problem. These algorithms are very different from the earlier ones and from each other. We conduct an experimental evaluation of the relative performance of these algorithms. In the process, we develop heuristics and data structures that substantially improve practical performance of the algorithms. We also develop problem families for testing minimum cut algorithms. Our work leads to a better understanding of practical performance of the minimum cut algorithms and produces very efficient codes for the problem.