Approximation Algorithms

Cover
Springer Science & Business Media, 14.03.2013 - 380 Seiten
Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) Most natural optimization problems, including those arising in important application areas, are NP-hard. Therefore, under the widely believed con jecture that P -=/= NP, their exact solution is prohibitively time consuming. Charting the landscape of approximability of these problems, via polynomial time algorithms, therefore becomes a compelling subject of scientific inquiry in computer science and mathematics. This book presents the theory of ap proximation algorithms as it stands today. It is reasonable to expect the picture to change with time. This book is divided into three parts. In Part I we cover combinato rial algorithms for a number of important problems, using a wide variety of algorithm design techniques. The latter may give Part I a non-cohesive appearance. However, this is to be expected - nature is very rich, and we cannot expect a few tricks to help solve the diverse collection of NP-hard problems. Indeed, in this part, we have purposely refrained from tightly cat egorizing algorithmic techniques so as not to trivialize matters. Instead, we have attempted to capture, as accurately as possible, the individual character of each problem, and point out connections between problems and algorithms for solving them.
 

Inhalt

1 Introduction
1
Part I Combinatorial Algorithms
12
Part II LPBased Algorithms
90
Part III Other Topics
270
A An Overview of Complexity Theory for the Algorithm Designer
344
B Basic Facts from Probability Theory
353
References
356
Problem Index
373
Subject Index
377
Urheberrecht

Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen

Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen

Bibliografische Informationen