A Faster Strongly Polynomial Time Algorithm for Submodular Function Minimization

Overview & Synopsis

We give a strongly polynomial time algorithm for submodular function minimization with overall running time $\widetilde{O}(n^{2}\mathsf{EO}+n^{3})$ time, where $\mathsf{EO}$ is the running time of a single evaluation of the function. Our algorithm improves upon the previously fastest strongly polynomial algorithms of Lee et al. (FOCS 2015), Dadush et al. (SODA 2018), and Jiang et al. (SODA 2024) that run in time $\widetilde{O}(n^{3}\mathsf{EO}+n^{4})$. Similarly to prior works, our work combines a cutting plane algorithm with the combinatorial arc-finding framework of Fleischer et al. (JACM 2001). We achieve our faster running time by developing an algorithm that runs the cutting plane method end to end, without restarting after discovering arcs and contracting strongly connected components.