A simple algorithm for the multiway cut problem

Abstract

Multiway Cut is a classic graph partitioning problem in which the goal is to disconnect a given set of special vertices called terminals. This problem admits a rich sequence of works. Unfortunately, most of these works resort to the mix of multiple algorithmic components, resulting in both complicated algorithms and analysis. We present a simple algorithm for the Multiway Cut problem that is comprised of a single algorithmic component and achieves an approximation of 118=1.375.