Preventing Small $\mathbf {(s, t)}$-Cuts by Protecting Edges

We introduce and study WEIGHTED MIN (s, t)-CUT PREVENTION, where we are given a graph G = (V,E) with vertices s and t and an edge cost function and the aim is to choose an edge set D of total cost at most d such that G has no (s, t)-edge cut of capacity at most a that is disjoint from D. We show that WEIGHTED MIN (s, t)-CUT PREVENTION is NP-hard even on subcubcic graphs when all edges have capacity and cost one and provide a comprehensive study of the parameterized complexity of the problem. We show, for example W[1]-hardness with respect to d and an FPT algorithm for a.

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