Novel Approaches To Hard Discrete Optimization

During the last decade, many novel approaches have been considered for dealing with computationally difficult discrete optimization problems. Such approaches include interior point methods, semidefinite programming techniques, and global optimization. More efficient computational algorithms have been developed and larger problem instances of hard discrete problems have been solved. This progress is due in part to these novel approaches, but also to new computing facilities and massive parallelism. This volume contains the papers presented at the workshop on ``Novel Approaches to Hard Discrete Optimization''. The articles cover a spectrum of issues regarding computationally hard discrete problems.

During the last decade, many novel approaches have been considered for dealing with computationally difficult discrete optimization problems. Such approaches include interior point methods, semidefinite programming techniques, and global optimization. More efficient computational algorithms have been developed and larger problem instances of hard discrete problems have been solved. This progress is due in part to these novel approaches, but also to new computing facilities and massive parallelism. This volume contains the papers presented at the workshop on ''Novel Approaches to Hard Discrete Optimization''. The articles cover a spectrum of issues regarding computationally hard discrete problems.

Discrete optimization is an important area of Applied Mathematics with a broad spectrum of applications in many fields. This book results from a Special Issue in the journal Mathematics entitled 'Advances and Novel Approaches in Discrete Optimization'. It contains 17 articles covering a broad spectrum of subjects which have been selected from 43 submitted papers after a thorough refereeing process. Among other topics, it includes seven articles dealing with scheduling problems, e.g., online scheduling, batching, dual and inverse scheduling problems, or uncertain scheduling problems. Other subjects are graphs and applications, evacuation planning, the max-cut problem, capacitated lot-sizing, and packing algorithms.

Discrete Optimization I

One of the most frequently occurring types of optimization problems involves decision variables which have to take integer values. From a practical point of view, such problems occur in countless areas of management, engineering, administration, etc., and include such problems as location of plants or warehouses, scheduling of aircraft, cutting raw materials to prescribed dimensions, design of computer chips, increasing reliability or capacity of networks, etc. This is the class of problems known in the professional literature as "discrete optimization" problems. While these problems are of enormous applicability, they present many challenges from a computational point of view. This volume is an update on the impressive progress achieved by mathematicians, operations researchers, and computer scientists in solving discrete optimization problems of very large sizes. The surveys in this volume present a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in discrete optimization and are written by the most prominent researchers from all over the world. This volume describes the tremendous progress in discrete optimization achieved in the last 20 years since the publication of Discrete Optimization '77, Annals of Discrete Mathematics, volumes 4 and 5, 1979 (Elsevier). It contains surveys of the state of the art written by the most prominent researchers in the field from all over the world, and covers topics like neighborhood search techniques, lift and project for mixed 0-1 programming, pseudo-Boolean optimization, scheduling and assignment problems, production planning, location, bin packing, cutting planes, vehicle routing, and applications to graph theory, mechanics, chip design, etc. Key features: • state of the art surveys • comprehensiveness • prominent authors • theoretical, computational and applied aspects. This book is a reprint of Discrete Applied Mathematics Volume 23, Numbers 1-3

The first of a multi-volume set, which deals with several algorithmic approaches for discrete problems as well as many combinatorial problems. It is addressed to researchers in discrete optimization, and to all scientists who use combinatorial optimization methods to model and solve problems.

Rave reviews for INTEGER AND COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIZATION "This book provides an excellent introduction and survey of traditional fields of combinatorial optimization . . . It is indeed one of the best and most complete texts on combinatorial optimization . . . available. [And] with more than 700 entries, [it] has quite an exhaustive reference list."-Optima "A unifying approach to optimization problems is to formulate them like linear programming problems, while restricting some or all of the variables to the integers. This book is an encyclopedic resource for such formulations, as well as for understanding the structure of and solving the resulting integer programming problems."-Computing Reviews "[This book] can serve as a basis for various graduate courses on discrete optimization as well as a reference book for researchers and practitioners."-Mathematical Reviews "This comprehensive and wide-ranging book will undoubtedly become a standard reference book for all those in the field of combinatorial optimization."-Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society "This text should be required reading for anybody who intends to do research in this area or even just to keep abreast of developments."-Times Higher Education Supplement, London Also of interest . . . INTEGER PROGRAMMING Laurence A. Wolsey Comprehensive and self-contained, this intermediate-level guide to integer programming provides readers with clear, up-to-date explanations on why some problems are difficult to solve, how techniques can be reformulated to give better results, and how mixed integer programming systems can be used more effectively. 1998 (0-471-28366-5) 260 pp.

This book aims to demonstrate and detail the pervasive nature of Discrete Optimization. The handbook couples the difficult, critical-thinking aspects of mathematical modeling with the hot area of discrete optimization. It is done with an academic treatment outlining the state-of-the-art for researchers across the domains of the Computer Science, Math Programming, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, and Operations Research. The book utilizes the tools of mathematical modeling, optimization, and integer programming to solve a broad range of modern problems.