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Abstract: We present a new algorithm for the problem of determining the intersection of a half-line with the independent set polytope of a matroid. We show it can also be used to compute the strength of a graph and the corresponding partition using successive contractions. The algorithm is based on the maximization of successive linear forms on the boundary of the polytope. We prove it is a polynomial algorithm in probability with average number of iterations in . Finally, numerical tests reveal that it should only require iterations in practice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]