flow op• Data kinds: matrix → table
• Call: import fullseye as fs; fs.ledger.graph_physarum_path(lengths, source=0, sink=None, dt=0.1, max_iters=5000, tol=1e-06, frac=0.5) (to call the implementation directly, import physarum_search; physarum_search.graph_physarum_path(lengths, source=0, sink=None, dt=0.1, max_iters=5000, tol=1e-06, frac=0.5); from the registry, opsgraph.get("graph_physarum_path"))
Shortest path by the slime mould's tube dynamics (Tero et al. 2010) on a weighted graph.
lengths is a symmetric (n, n) matrix of tube lengths (0 = no tube, diagonal 0). A unit flow is pushed from source to sink (default n - 1) through tubes of conductance D_e; the pressures solve the weighted Laplacian (Kirchhoff), the flow in a tube is Q_e = D_e (p_u - p_v) / L_e, and each tube adapts dD_e/dt = |Q_e| - D_e (explicit Euler, step dt). Bonifaci, Mehlhorn and Varma (2012) prove that with a unique shortest path the conductances converge to its indicator: D_e -> 1 on it, 0 off it. The path is read by following, from the source, the tube that carries the most flow out of each node (a potential flow has no cycle); it must be at least frac of the thickest tube all along, else the run is refused as not converged.
Returns conductance and flow ((n, n) matrices, flow antisymmetric), path (node indices source → sink), path_length (sum of the tube lengths along it), flow_length = sum |Q_e| L_e (the length of the unit flow; it is >= path_length for every unit flow and equal only when all flow rides shortest paths), iters, converged (max |dD| fell below tol), history (max |dD| per iteration).
Raises ValueError: matrix not square / symmetric / finite / non-negative, self-loops; bad node indices or source == sink; sink unreachable; dt outside (0, 1]; no path survived the threshold (not converged).
• Sample-data catalog (download URLs / licences) — 2-D uses skimage.data (BSD/public domain) plus synthetic images; 3-D lists download URLs for real data sources (Stanford, PDS, …).
• Operator provenance and references — the sources of the research/methods this op family came from.
• The canonical algorithm (author, year) and its uses are named in the family usage guide above.
• poc_physarum_maze — py -3.11 examples/poc_physarum_maze.py
table as input)graph_edge_consensus · graph_core_persistence · tree_morphometry · tree_sholl · tree_run_length
flow)physarum_route · graph_physarum_transport · physarum_transport_image
*Provenance: physarum_search.py — GRAPH operator registry. This per-op note is generated by tools/opdocs.py md (do not hand-edit).*
© 2026 Kazufumi Furuse — Fullseye operator documentation. Licensed under Apache-2.0.