Why it matters

Stoer-Wagner is standard deterministic min-cut. Understanding shapes global cuts.

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The architecture

Repeated MinCutPhase.

Add most-tightly-connected vertex.

Cut-of-phase = last two added.

Merge; repeat.

Stoer-Wagner flowMinCutPhaseadd tightest vertexCut-of-phaselast two verticesMerge + repeatn-1 phasesDeterministic; no source-sink specification; O(VE + V^2 log V) with binary heap
Stoer-Wagner.
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How it works end to end

Similar to Prim's structure.

Priority queue by connectivity to A.

Merge last two after each phase.

Track global min across phases.