  We introduce a new approach to computing an approximately maximum s-t flow in
a capacitated, undirected graph. This flow is computed by solving a sequence of
electrical flow problems. Each electrical flow is given by the solution of a
system of linear equations in a Laplacian matrix, and thus may be approximately
computed in nearly-linear time.
  Using this approach, we develop the fastest known algorithm for computing
approximately maximum s-t flows. For a graph having n vertices and m edges, our
algorithm computes a (1-\epsilon)-approximately maximum s-t flow in time
\tilde{O}(mn^{1/3} \epsilon^{-11/3}). A dual version of our approach computes a
(1+\epsilon)-approximately minimum s-t cut in time
\tilde{O}(m+n^{4/3}\eps^{-8/3}), which is the fastest known algorithm for this
problem as well. Previously, the best dependence on m and n was achieved by the
algorithm of Goldberg and Rao (J. ACM 1998), which can be used to compute
approximately maximum s-t flows in time \tilde{O}(m\sqrt{n}\epsilon^{-1}), and
approximately minimum s-t cuts in time \tilde{O}(m+n^{3/2}\epsilon^{-3}).
