A branch-and-cut algorithm for the equicut problem

We describe an algorithm for solving the equicut problem on complete graphs, The core of the algorithm is a cutting-plane procedure that exploits a subset of the linear inequalities defining the convex hull of the incidence vectors of the edge sets that define an equicut. The cuts are generated by several separation procedures that will be described in the paper. Whenever the cutting-plane procedure does not terminate with an optimal solution, the algorithm uses a branch-and-cut strategy. We also describe the implementation of the algorithm and the interface with the LP solver. Finally, we report on computational results on dense instances with sizes up to 100 nodes. (C) 1997 The Mathematical Programming Society, Inc. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.