Bellman-Ford Algorithm

Bellman-Ford is a single source shortest path algorithm that determines the shortest
path between a given source vertex and every other vertex in a graph. This algorithm
can be used on both weighted and unweighted graphs.

A Bellman-Ford algorithm is also guaranteed to find the shortest path in a graph,

similar to Dijkstra’s algorithm. Although Bellman-Ford is slower than Dijkstra’s
algorithm, it is capable of handling graphs with negative edge weights, which makes it
more versatile. The shortest path cannot be found if there exists a negative cycle in the
graph. If we continue to go around the negative cycle an infinite number of times, then
the cost of the path will continue to decrease (even though the length of the path is
increasing). As a result, Bellman-Ford is also capable of detecting negative cycles,
which is an important feature.

The idea behind Bellman Ford Algorithm:

The Bellman-Ford algorithm’s primary principle is that it starts with a single source and
calculates the distance to each node. The distance is initially unknown and assumed to
be infinite, but as time goes on, the algorithm relaxes those paths by identifying a few
shorter paths. Hence it is said that Bellman-Ford is based on “Principle of
Relaxation“.

Principle of Relaxation of Edges for Bellman-Ford:

 It states that for the graph having N vertices, all the edges should be relaxed N-
1 times to compute the single source shortest path.
 In order to detect whether a negative cycle exists or not, relax all the edge one more
time and if the shortest distance for any node reduces then we can say that a
negative cycle exists. In short if we relax the edges N times, and there is any
change in the shortest distance of any node between the N-1th and Nth relaxation
than a negative cycle exists, otherwise not exist.

Why Relaxing Edges N-1 times, gives us Single Source Shortest Path?
In the worst-case scenario, a shortest path between two vertices can have at most N-
1 edges, where N is the number of vertices. This is because a simple path in a graph
with N vertices can have at most N-1 edges, as it’s impossible to form a closed loop
without revisiting a vertex.

By relaxing edges N-1 times, the Bellman-Ford algorithm ensures that the distance
estimates for all vertices have been updated to their optimal values, assuming the
graph doesn’t contain any negative-weight cycles reachable from the source vertex. If
a graph contains a negative-weight cycle reachable from the source vertex, the
algorithm can detect it after N-1 iterations, since the negative cycle disrupts the
shortest path lengths.
In summary, relaxing edges N-1 times in the Bellman-Ford algorithm guarantees that
the algorithm has explored all possible paths of length up to N-1, which is the
maximum possible length of a shortest path in a graph with N vertices. This allows the
algorithm to correctly calculate the shortest paths from the source vertex to all other
vertices, given that there are no negative-weight cycles.

Why Does the Reduction of Distance in the N’th Relaxation Indicates the
Existence of a Negative Cycle?

As previously discussed, achieving the single source shortest paths to all other nodes
takes N-1 relaxations. If the N’th relaxation further reduces the shortest distance for
any node, it implies that a certain edge with negative weight has been traversed once
more. It is important to note that during the N-1 relaxations, we presumed that each
vertex is traversed only once. However, the reduction of distance during the N’th
relaxation indicates revisiting a vertex.

Working of Bellman-Ford Algorithm to Detect the Negative

cycle in the graph:
Let’s suppose we have a graph which is given below and we want to find whether there
exists a negative cycle or not using Bellman-Ford.

Initial Graph
Step 1: Initialize a distance array Dist[] to store the shortest distance for each vertex
from the source vertex. Initially distance of source will be 0 and Distance of other
vertices will be INFINITY.

Initialize a distance array

Step 2: Start relaxing the edges, during 1st Relaxation:

 Current Distance of B > (Distance of A) + (Weight of A to B) i.e. Infinity > 0 + 5
 Therefore, Dist[B] = 5

1st Relaxation
Step 3: During 2nd Relaxation:
 Current Distance of D > (Distance of B) + (Weight of B to D) i.e. Infinity > 5 + 2
 Dist[D] = 7
 Current Distance of C > (Distance of B) + (Weight of B to C) i.e. Infinity > 5 + 1
 Dist[C] = 6

2nd Relaxation

Step 4: During 3rd Relaxation:

 Current Distance of F > (Distance of D ) + (Weight of D to F) i.e. Infinity > 7 + 2
 Dist[F] = 9
 Current Distance of E > (Distance of C ) + (Weight of C to E) i.e. Infinity > 6 + 1
 Dist[E] = 7

3rd Relaxation
Step 5: During 4th Relaxation:
 Current Distance of D > (Distance of E) + (Weight of E to D) i.e. 7 > 7 + (-1)
 Dist[D] = 6
 Current Distance of E > (Distance of F ) + (Weight of F to E) i.e. 7 > 9 + (-3)
 Dist[E] = 6

4th Relaxation

Step 6: During 5th Relaxation:

 Current Distance of F > (Distance of D) + (Weight of D to F) i.e. 9 > 6 + 2
 Dist[F] = 8
 Current Distance of D > (Distance of E ) + (Weight of E to D) i.e. 6 > 6 + (-1)
 Dist[E] = 5
 Since the graph h 6 vertices, So during the 5th relaxation the shortest distance for
all the vertices should have been calculated.

5th Relaxation
Step 7: Now the final relaxation i.e. the 6th relaxation should indicate the presence of
negative cycle if there is any changes in the distance array of 5th relaxation.
During the 6th relaxation, following changes can be seen:
 Current Distance of E > (Distance of F) + (Weight of F to E) i.e. 6 > 8 + (-3)
 Dist[E]=5
 Current Distance of F > (Distance of D ) + (Weight of D to F) i.e. 8 > 5 + 2
 Dist[F]=7
Since, we observer changes in the Distance array Hence ,we can conclude the
presence of a negative cycle in the graph.

6th Relaxation

Result: A negative cycle (D->F->E) exists in the graph.

Algorithm to Find Negative Cycle in a Directed Weighted Graph Using
Bellman-Ford:

 Initialize distance array dist[] for each vertex ‘v‘ as dist[v] = INFINITY.
 Assume any vertex (let’s say ‘0’) as source and assign dist = 0.
 Relax all the edges(u,v,weight) N-1 times as per the below condition:
 dist[v] = minimum(dist[v], distance[u] + weight)
 Now, Relax all the edges one more time i.e. the Nth time and based on the below
two cases we can detect the negative cycle:
 Case 1 (Negative cycle exists): For any edge(u, v, weight), if dist[u] +
weight < dist[v]
 Case 2 (No Negative cycle) : case 1 fails for all the edges.

Handling Disconnected Graphs in the Algorithm:

The above algorithm and program might not work if the given graph is disconnected. It
works when all vertices are reachable from source vertex 0.
To handle disconnected graphs, we can repeat the above algorithm for vertices
having distance = INFINITY, or simply for the vertices that are not visited.