This textbook thoroughly outlines combinatorial algorithms for generation, enumeration, and search. Topics include backtracking and heuristic search methods applied to various combinatorial structures, such as: Combinations Permutations Graphs Designs Many classical areas are covered as well as new research topics not included in most existing texts, such as: Group algorithms Graph isomorphism Hill-climbing Heuristic search algorithms This work serves as an exceptional textbook for a modern course in combinatorial algorithms, providing a unified and focused collection of recent topics of interest in the area. The authors, synthesizing material that can only be found scattered through many different sources, introduce the most important combinatorial algorithmic techniques - thus creating an accessible, comprehensive text that students of mathematics, electrical engineering, and computer science can understand without needing a prior course on combinatorics.

Even three decades ago, the words 'combinatorial algebra' contrasting, for in stance, the words 'combinatorial topology,' were not a common designation for some branch of mathematics. The collocation 'combinatorial group theory' seems to ap pear first as the title of the book by A. Karras, W. Magnus, and D. Solitar [182] and, later on, it served as the title of the book by R. C. Lyndon and P. Schupp [247]. Nowadays, specialists do not question the existence of 'combinatorial algebra' as a special algebraic activity. The activity is distinguished not only by its objects of research (that are effectively given to some extent) but also by its methods (ef fective to some extent). To be more exact, we could approximately define the term 'combinatorial algebra' for the purposes of this book, as follows: So we call a part of algebra dealing with groups, semi groups , associative algebras, Lie algebras, and other algebraic systems which are given by generators and defining relations {in the first and particular place, free groups, semigroups, algebras, etc. )j a part in which we study universal constructions, viz. free products, lINN-extensions, etc. j and, finally, a part where specific methods such as the Composition Method (in other words, the Diamond Lemma, see [49]) are applied. Surely, the above explanation is far from covering the full scope of the term (compare the prefaces to the books mentioned above).

The discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science communities have recently witnessed explosive growth in the area of algorithmic combinatorics on words. The next generation of research on combinatorics of partial words promises to have a substantial impact on molecular biology, nanotechnology, data communication, and DNA computing. Delving

Historically, there is a close connection between geometry and optImization. This is illustrated by methods like the gradient method and the simplex method, which are associated with clear geometric pictures. In combinatorial optimization, however, many of the strongest and most frequently used algorithms are based on the discrete structure of the problems: the greedy algorithm, shortest path and alternating path methods, branch-and-bound, etc. In the last several years geometric methods, in particular polyhedral combinatorics, have played a more and more profound role in combinatorial optimization as well. Our book discusses two recent geometric algorithms that have turned out to have particularly interesting consequences in combinatorial optimization, at least from a theoretical point of view. These algorithms are able to utilize the rich body of results in polyhedral combinatorics. The first of these algorithms is the ellipsoid method, developed for nonlinear programming by N. Z. Shor, D. B. Yudin, and A. S. NemirovskiI. It was a great surprise when L. G. Khachiyan showed that this method can be adapted to solve linear programs in polynomial time, thus solving an important open theoretical problem. While the ellipsoid method has not proved to be competitive with the simplex method in practice, it does have some features which make it particularly suited for the purposes of combinatorial optimization. The second algorithm we discuss finds its roots in the classical "geometry of numbers", developed by Minkowski. This method has had traditionally deep applications in number theory, in particular in diophantine approximation.

Algorithms play an increasingly important role in nearly all fields of mathematics. This book allows readers to develop basic mathematical abilities, in particular those concerning the design and analysis of algorithms as well as their implementation. It presents not only fundamental algorithms like the sieve of Eratosthenes, the Euclidean algorithm, sorting algorithms, algorithms on graphs, and Gaussian elimination, but also discusses elementary data structures, basic graph theory, and numerical questions. In addition, it provides an introduction to programming and demonstrates in detail how to implement algorithms in C++. This textbook is suitable for students who are new to the subject and covers a basic mathematical lecture course, complementing traditional courses on analysis and linear algebra. Both authors have given this "Algorithmic Mathematics" course at the University of Bonn several times in recent years.

This graduate-level text considers the Soviet ellipsoid algorithm for linear programming; efficient algorithms for network flow, matching, spanning trees, and matroids; the theory of NP-complete problems; local search heuristics for NP-complete problems, more. 1982 edition.

Leave nothing to chance. This cliche embodies the common belief that ran domness has no place in carefully planned methodologies, every step should be spelled out, each i dotted and each t crossed. In discrete mathematics at least, nothing could be further from the truth. Introducing random choices into algorithms can improve their performance. The application of proba bilistic tools has led to the resolution of combinatorial problems which had resisted attack for decades. The chapters in this volume explore and celebrate this fact. Our intention was to bring together, for the first time, accessible discus sions of the disparate ways in which probabilistic ideas are enriching discrete mathematics. These discussions are aimed at mathematicians with a good combinatorial background but require only a passing acquaintance with the basic definitions in probability (e.g. expected value, conditional probability). A reader who already has a firm grasp on the area will be interested in the original research, novel syntheses, and discussions of ongoing developments scattered throughout the book. Some of the most convincing demonstrations of the power of these tech niques are randomized algorithms for estimating quantities which are hard to compute exactly. One example is the randomized algorithm of Dyer, Frieze and Kannan for estimating the volume of a polyhedron. To illustrate these techniques, we consider a simple related problem. Suppose S is some region of the unit square defined by a system of polynomial inequalities: Pi (x. y) ~ o.

Are you looking for new lectures for your course on algorithms, combinatorial optimization, or algorithmic game theory? Maybe you need a convenient source of relevant, current topics for a graduate student or advanced undergraduate student seminar? Or perhaps you just want an enjoyable look at some beautiful mathematical and algorithmic results, ideas, proofs, concepts, and techniques in discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science? Gems of Combinatorial Optimization and Graph Algorithms is a handpicked collection of up-to-date articles, carefully prepared by a select group of international experts, who have contributed some of their most mathematically or algorithmically elegant ideas. Topics include longest tours and Steiner trees in geometric spaces, cartograms, resource buying games, congestion games, selfish routing, revenue equivalence and shortest paths, scheduling, linear structures in graphs, contraction hierarchies, budgeted matching problems, and motifs in networks. This volume is aimed at readers with some familiarity of combinatorial optimization, and appeals to researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students alike.

Combinatorics is a subject of increasing importance because of its links with computer science, statistics, and algebra. This textbook stresses common techniques (such as generating functions and recursive construction) that underlie the great variety of subject matter, and the fact that a constructive or algorithmic proof is more valuable than an existence proof. The author emphasizes techniques as well as topics and includes many algorithms described in simple terms. The text should provide essential background for students in all parts of discrete mathematics.

Computational geometry as an area of research in its own right emerged in the early seventies of this century. Right from the beginning, it was obvious that strong connections of various kinds exist to questions studied in the considerably older field of combinatorial geometry. For example, the combinatorial structure of a geometric problem usually decides which algorithmic method solves the problem most efficiently. Furthermore, the analysis of an algorithm often requires a great deal of combinatorial knowledge. As it turns out, however, the connection between the two research areas commonly referred to as computa tional geometry and combinatorial geometry is not as lop-sided as it appears. Indeed, the interest in computational issues in geometry gives a new and con structive direction to the combinatorial study of geometry. It is the intention of this book to demonstrate that computational and com binatorial investigations in geometry are doomed to profit from each other. To reach this goal, I designed this book to consist of three parts, acorn binatorial part, a computational part, and one that presents applications of the results of the first two parts. The choice of the topics covered in this book was guided by my attempt to describe the most fundamental algorithms in computational geometry that have an interesting combinatorial structure. In this early stage geometric transforms played an important role as they reveal connections between seemingly unrelated problems and thus help to structure the field.