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arXiv · 1512.05974

Improved Balanced Flow Computation Using Parametric Flow

Omar Darwish·Kurt Mehlhorn
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Abstract

We present a new algorithm for computing balanced flows in equality networks arising in market equilibrium computations. The current best time bound for computing balanced flows in such networks requires $O(n)$ maxflow computations, where $n$ is the number of nodes in the network [Devanur et al. 2008]. Our algorithm requires only a single parametric flow computation. The best algorithm for computing parametric flows [Gallo et al. 1989] is only by a logarithmic factor slower than the best algorithms for computing maxflows. Hence, the running time of the algorithms in [Devanur et al. 2008] and [Duan and Mehlhorn 2015] for computing market equilibria in linear Fisher and Arrow-Debreu markets improve by almost a factor of $n$.

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Omar Darwish, Kurt Mehlhorn. 2015-12-18. Improved Balanced Flow Computation Using Parametric Flow. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipl.2016.04.008

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