New Query Lower Bounds for Submodular Function Minimization

We consider submodular function minimization in the oracle model: given black-box access to a submodular set function f:2^[n] → ℝ, find an element of arg min_S {f(S)} using as few queries to f(⋅) as possible. State-of-the-art algorithms succeed with Õ(n²) queries [Yin Tat Lee et al., 2015], yet the best-known lower bound has never been improved beyond n [Nicholas J. A. Harvey, 2008]. We provide a query lower bound of 2n for submodular function minimization, a 3n/2-2 query lower bound for the non-trivial minimizer of a symmetric submodular function, and a binom{n}{2} query lower bound for the non-trivial minimizer of an asymmetric submodular function. Our 3n/2-2 lower bound results from a connection between SFM lower bounds and a novel concept we term the cut dimension of a graph. Interestingly, this yields a 3n/2-2 cut-query lower bound for finding the global mincut in an undirected, weighted graph, but we also prove it cannot yield a lower bound better than n+1 for s-t mincut, even in a directed, weighted graph.