On Integer and Bilevel Formulations for the k-Vertex Cut Problem

Articles

On Integer and Bilevel Formulations for the k-Vertex Cut Problem

Année

2020

Auteurs

LJUBIC Ivana, FURINI Fabio, MALAGUTI Enrico, PARONUZZI Paolo

Abstract

The family of critical node detection problems asks for finding a subset of vertices, deletion of which minimizes or maximizes a predefined connectivity measure on the remaining network. We study a problem of this family called the k-vertex cut problem. The problem asks for determining the minimum weight subset of nodes whose removal disconnects a graph into at least k components. We provide two new integer linear programming formulations, along with families of strengthening valid inequalities. Both models involve an exponential number of constraints for which we provide poly-time separation procedures and design the respective branch-and-cut algorithms. In the first formulation one representative vertex is chosen for each of the k mutually disconnected vertex subsets of the remaining graph. In the second formulation, the model is derived from the perspective of a two-phase Stackelberg game in which a leader deletes the vertices in the first phase, and in the second phase a follower builds connected components in the remaining graph. Our computational study demonstrates that a hybrid model in which valid inequalities of both formulations are combined significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art exact methods from the literature.

LJUBIC, I., FURINI, F., MALAGUTI, E. et PARONUZZI, P. (2020). On Integer and Bilevel Formulations for the k-Vertex Cut Problem. Mathematical Programming Computation, 12, pp. 133-164.