Algorithms and Combinatorics - Böcker

This book explores fundamental aspects of geometric network optimisation with applications to a variety of real world problems. It presents, for the first time in the literature, a cohesive mathematical framework within which the properties of such optimal interconnection networks can be understood across a wide range of metrics and cost functions. The book makes use of this mathematical theory to develop efficient algorithms for constructing such networks, with an emphasis on exact solutions.Marcus Brazil and Martin Zachariasen focus principally on the geometric structure of optimal interconnection networks, also known as Steiner trees, in the plane. They show readers how an understanding of this structure can lead to practical exact algorithms for constructing such trees. The book also details numerous breakthroughs in this area over the past 20 years, features clearly written proofs, and is supported by 135 colour and 15 black and white figures. It will help graduate students, working mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists to understand the principles required for designing interconnection networks in the plane that are as cost efficient as possible.

This book explores fundamental aspects of geometric network optimisation with applications to a variety of real world problems. It presents, for the first time in the literature, a cohesive mathematical framework within which the properties of such optimal interconnection networks can be understood across a wide range of metrics and cost functions. The book makes use of this mathematical theory to develop efficient algorithms for constructing such networks, with an emphasis on exact solutions.Marcus Brazil and Martin Zachariasen focus principally on the geometric structure of optimal interconnection networks, also known as Steiner trees, in the plane. They show readers how an understanding of this structure can lead to practical exact algorithms for constructing such trees. The book also details numerous breakthroughs in this area over the past 20 years, features clearly written proofs, and is supported by 135 colour and 15 black and white figures. It will help graduate students, working mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists to understand the principles required for designing interconnection networks in the plane that are as cost efficient as possible.

Partition functions arise in combinatorics and related problems of statistical physics as they encode in a succinct way the combinatorial  structure of complicated systems. The main focus of the book is on efficient ways to compute (approximate) various partition functions, such as permanents, hafnians and their higher-dimensional versions, graph and hypergraph matching polynomials, the independence polynomial of a graph and partition functions enumerating 0-1 and integer points in polyhedra, which allows one to make algorithmic advances in otherwise intractable problems. The book unifies various, often quite recent, results scattered in the literature, concentrating on the three main approaches: scaling, interpolation and correlation decay. The prerequisites include moderate amounts of real and complex analysis and linear algebra, making the book accessible to advanced math and physics undergraduates.

Partition functions arise in combinatorics and related problems of statistical physics as they encode in a succinct way the combinatorial  structure of complicated systems. The main focus of the book is on efficient ways to compute (approximate) various partition functions, such as permanents, hafnians and their higher-dimensional versions, graph and hypergraph matching polynomials, the independence polynomial of a graph and partition functions enumerating 0-1 and integer points in polyhedra, which allows one to make algorithmic advances in otherwise intractable problems. The book unifies various, often quite recent, results scattered in the literature, concentrating on the three main approaches: scaling, interpolation and correlation decay. The prerequisites include moderate amounts of real and complex analysis and linear algebra, making the book accessible to advanced math and physics undergraduates.

An impressive collection of original research papers in discrete and computational geometry, contributed by many leading researchers in these fields, as a tribute to Jacob E. Goodman and Richard Pollack, two of the 'founding fathers' of the area, on the occasion of their 2/3 x 100 birthdays. The topics covered by the 41 papers provide professionals and graduate students with a comprehensive presentation of the state of the art in most aspects of discrete and computational geometry, including geometric algorithms, study of arrangements, geometric graph theory, quantitative and algorithmic real algebraic geometry, with important connections to algebraic geometry, convexity, polyhedral combinatorics, the theory of packing, covering, and tiling. The book serves as an invaluable source of reference in this discipline.

For more than 35 years now, George B. Dantzig's Simplex-Method has been the most efficient mathematical tool for solving linear programming problems. It is proba­ bly that mathematical algorithm for which the most computation time on computers is spent. This fact explains the great interest of experts and of the public to understand the method and its efficiency. But there are linear programming problems which will not be solved by a given variant of the Simplex-Method in an acceptable time. The discrepancy between this (negative) theoretical result and the good practical behaviour of the method has caused a great fascination for many years. While the "worst-case analysis" of some variants of the method shows that this is not a "good" algorithm in the usual sense of complexity theory, it seems to be useful to apply other criteria for a judgement concerning the quality of the algorithm. One of these criteria is the average computation time, which amounts to an anal­ ysis of the average number of elementary arithmetic computations and of the number of pivot steps. A rigid analysis of the average behaviour may be very helpful for the decision which algorithm and which variant shall be used in practical applications. The subject and purpose of this book is to explain the great efficiency in prac­ tice by assuming certain distributions on the "real-world" -problems. Other stochastic models are realistic as well and so this analysis should be considered as one of many possibilities.

This monograph illustrates how engineering problems can be solved using the results of combinatorial mathematics through appropriate mathematical modelling. The structural solvability of a system of linear or nonlinear equations as well as the structural controllability of a linear time-invariant dynamical system are treated by means of graphs and matroids. Special emphasis is laid on the importance of relevant physical observations to successful mathematical modellings. The reader should become acquainted with the concepts of matroid theory and its corresponding matroid theoretical approach.

This monograph attempts to unify different mathematical approaches and to lead the reader from fundamental results in matroid theory to the current state-of-the-art in open research problems. It reviews classical concepts from matroid theory and extends them to greedoids ("greedy" algorithms).

The book offers the readers a collection of high quality papers in selected topics of Discrete Mathematics, to celebrate the 60th birthday ofProfessor Jarik Nešetril. Leading experts have contributed survey and research papers in the areas of Algebraic Combinatorics, Combinatorial Number Theory, Game theory, Ramsey Theory, Graphs and Hypergraphs,Homomorphisms, Graph Colorings and Graph Embeddings.

The study of random graphs was begun by Paul Erdos and Alfred Renyi in the 1960s and now has a comprehensive literature. A compelling element has been the threshold function, a short range in which events rapidly move from almost certainly false to almost certainly true. This book now joins the study of random graphs (and other random discrete objects) with mathematical logic. The possible threshold phenomena are studied for all statements expressible in a given language. Often there is a zero-one law, that every statement holds with probability near zero or near one. The methodologies involve probability, discrete structures and logic, with an emphasis on discrete structures. The book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in discrete mathematics.

Over the past decade, many major advances have been made in the field of graph colouring via the probabilistic method. This monograph provides an accessible and unified treatment of these results, using tools such as the Lovasz Local Lemma and Talagrand's concentration inequality. The topics covered include: Kahn's proofs that the Goldberg-Seymour and List Colouring Conjectures hold asymptotically; a proof that for some absolute constant C, every graph of maximum degree Delta has a Delta+C total colouring; Johansson's proof that a triangle free graph has a O(Delta over log Delta) colouring; algorithmic variants of the Local Lemma which permit the efficient construction of many optimal and near-optimal colourings. This begins with a gentle introduction to the probabilistic method and will be useful to researchers and graduate students in graph theory, discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science and probability.

This book offers an in-depth overview of polyhedral methods and efficient algorithms in combinatorial optimization.These methods form a broad, coherent and powerful kernel in combinatorial optimization, with strong links to discrete mathematics, mathematical programming and computer science. In eight parts, various areas are treated, each starting with an elementary introduction to the area, with short, elegant proofs of the principal results, and each evolving to the more advanced methods and results, with full proofs of some of the deepest theorems in the area. Over 4000 references to further research are given, and historical surveys on the basic subjects are presented.

The problem of uniform distribution of sequences initiated by Hardy, Little­ wood and Weyl in the 1910's has now become an important part of number theory. This is also true, in relation to combinatorics, of what is called Ramsey­ theory, a theory of about the same age going back to Schur. Both concern the distribution of sequences of elements in certain collection of subsets. But it was not known until quite recently that the two are closely interweaving bear­ ing fruits for both. At the same time other fields of mathematics, such as ergodic theory, geometry, information theory, algorithm theory etc. have also joined in. (See the survey articles: V. T. S6s: Irregularities of partitions, Lec­ ture Notes Series 82, London Math. Soc. , Surveys in Combinatorics, 1983, or J. Beck: Irregularities of distributions and combinatorics, Lecture Notes Series 103, London Math. Soc. , Surveys in Combinatorics, 1985. ) The meeting held at Fertod, Hungary from the 7th to 11th of July, 1986 was to emphasize this development by bringing together a few people working on different aspects of this circle of problems. Although combinatorics formed the biggest contingent (see papers 2, 3, 6, 7, 13) some number theoretic and analytic aspects (see papers 4, 10, 11, 14) generalization of both (5, 8, 9, 12) as well as irregularities of distribution in the geometric theory of numbers (1), the most important instrument in bringing about the above combination of ideas are also represented.

Cuts and metrics are well-known objects that arise - independently, but with many deep and fascinating connections - in diverse fields: in graph theory, combinatorial optimization, geometry of numbers, combinatorial matrix theory, statistical physics, VLSI design etc. This book offers a comprehensive summary together with a global view, establishing both old and new links. Its treatment ranges from classical theorems of Menger and Schoenberg to recent developments such as approximation results for multicommodity flow and max-cut problems, metric aspects of Delaunay polytopes, isometric graph embeddings, and matrix completion problems. The discussion leads to many interesting subjects that cannot be found elsewhere, providing a unique and invaluable source for researchers and graduate students.

The book gives an accessible account of modern probabilistic methods for analyzing combinatorial structures and algorithms. It will be an useful guide for graduate students and researchers.Special features included: a simple treatment of Talagrand's inequalities and their applications; an overview and many carefully worked out examples of the probabilistic analysis of combinatorial algorithms; a discussion of the "exact simulation" algorithm (in the context of Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods); a general method for finding asymptotically optimal or near optimal graph colouring, showing how the probabilistic method may be fine-tuned to exploit the structure of the underlying graph; a succinct treatment of randomized algorithms and derandomization techniques.

You can start by putting the DO NOT DISTURB sign. Cay, in Desert Hearts (1985). The interplay between randomness and computation is one of the most fas­ cinating scientific phenomena uncovered in the last couple of decades. This interplay is at the heart of modern cryptography and plays a fundamental role in complexity theory at large. Specifically, the interplay of randomness and computation is pivotal to several intriguing notions of probabilistic proof systems and is the focal of the computational approach to randomness. This book provides an introduction to these three, somewhat interwoven domains (i.e., cryptography, proofs and randomness). Modern Cryptography. Whereas classical cryptography was confined to the art of designing and breaking encryption schemes (or "secrecy codes"), Modern Cryptography is concerned with the rigorous analysis of any system which should withstand malicious attempts to abuse it. We emphasize two aspects of the transition from classical to modern cryptography: ( 1) the wide­ ning of scope from one specific task to an utmost wide general class of tasks; and (2) the move from an engineering-art which strives on ad-hoc tricks to a scientific discipline based on rigorous approaches and techniques.

What is the "most uniform" way of distributing n points in the unit square? How big is the "irregularity" necessarily present in any such distribution? Such questions are treated in geometric discrepancy theory. The book is an accessible and lively introduction to this area, with numerous exercises and illustrations. In separate, more specialized parts, it also provides a comprehensive guide to recent research. Including a wide variety of mathematical techniques (from harmonic analysis, combinatorics, algebra etc.) in action on non-trivial examples, the book is suitable for a "special topic" course for early graduates in mathematics and computer science. Besides professional mathematicians, it will be of interest to specialists in fields where a large collection of objects should be "uniformly" represented by a smaller sample (such as high-dimensional numerical integration in computational physics or financial mathematics, efficient divide-and-conquer algorithms in computer science, etc.).

This book offers a comprehensive treatment of linear programming as well as of the optimization of linear functions over polyhedra in finite dimensional Euclidean vector spaces. An introduction surveying fifty years of linear optimization is given. The book can serve both as a graduate textbook for linear programming and as a text for advanced topics classes or seminars. Exercises as well as several case studies are included. The book is based on the author's long term experience in teaching and research. For his research work he has received, among other honors, the 1983 Lanchester Prize of the Operations Research Society of America, the 1985 Dantzig Prize of the Mathematical Programming Society and the Society for Industrial Applied Mathematics and a 1989 Alexander-von-Humboldt Senior U.S. Scientist Research Award.

The topic of this book is finite group actions and their use in order to approach finite unlabeled structures by defining them as orbits of finite groups of sets. Well-known examples are graph, linear codes, chemical isomers, spin configurations, isomorphism classes of combinatorial designs etc.The second edition is an extended version and puts more emphasis on applications to the constructive theory of finite structures. Recent progress in this field, in particular in design and coding theory, is described.This book will be of great use to researchers and graduate students.

A matroid is an abstract mathematical structure that captures combinatorial properties of matrices. This book offers a unique introduction to matroid theory, emphasizing motivations from matrix theory and applications to systems analysis.This book serves also as a comprehensive presentation of the theory and application of mixed matrices, developed primarily by the present author in the last decade. A mixed matrix is a convenient mathematical tool for systems analysis, compatible with the physical observation that "fixed constants" and "system parameters" are to be distinguished in the description of engineering systems.This book will be extremely useful to graduate students and researchers in engineering, mathematics and computer science.

Discrepancy theory is also called the theory of irregularities of distribution. There are subfields closely connected to the original number­ theoretic roots of discrepancy theory, areas related to Ramsey theory and to hypergraphs, and also results supporting eminently practical methods and algorithms for numerical integration and similar tasks.

A matroid is an abstract mathematical structure that captures combinatorial properties of matrices. This book offers a unique introduction to matroid theory, emphasizing motivations from matrix theory and applications to systems analysis.This book serves also as a comprehensive presentation of the theory and application of mixed matrices, developed primarily by the present author in the 1990's. A mixed matrix is a convenient mathematical tool for systems analysis, compatible with the physical observation that "fixed constants" and "system parameters" are to be distinguished in the description of engineering systems.This book will be extremely useful to graduate students and researchers in engineering, mathematics and computer science.From the reviews:"…The book has been prepared very carefully, contains a lot of interesting results and is highly recommended for graduate and postgraduate students."András Recski, Mathematical Reviews Clippings 2000m:93006

Cuts and metrics are well-known objects that arise - independently, but with many deep and fascinating connections - in diverse fields: in graph theory, combinatorial optimization, geometry of numbers, combinatorial matrix theory, statistical physics, VLSI design etc.This book presents a wealth of results, from different mathematical disciplines, in a unified comprehensive manner, and establishes new and old links, which cannot be found elsewhere. It provides a unique and invaluable source for researchers and graduate students.From the Reviews:"This book is definitely a milestone in the literature of integer programming and combinatorial optimization. It draws from the Interdisciplinarity of these fields […]. With knowledge about the relevant terms, one can enjoy special subsections without being entirely familiar with the rest of the chapter. This makes it not only an interesting research book but even a dictionary. […] The longer one works with it, the more beautiful it becomes." Optima 56, 1997.

This book comprises a collection of high quality papers in selected topics of Discrete Mathematics, to celebrate the 60th birthday of Professor Jarik NeA!etril. Leading experts have contributed survey and research papers in the areas of Algebraic Combinatorics, Combinatorial Number Theory, Game theory, Ramsey Theory, Graphs and Hypergraphs, Homomorphisms, Graph Colorings and Graph Embeddings.

The study of random graphs was begun by Paul Erdos and Alfred Renyi in the 1960s and now has a comprehensive literature. A compelling element has been the threshold function, a short range in which events rapidly move from almost certainly false to almost certainly true. This book now joins the study of random graphs (and other random discrete objects) with mathematical logic. The possible threshold phenomena are studied for all statements expressible in a given language. Often there is a zero-one law, that every statement holds with probability near zero or near one. The methodologies involve probability, discrete structures and logic, with an emphasis on discrete structures.The book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in discrete mathematics.

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.

You can start by putting the DO NOT DISTURB sign. Cay, in Desert Hearts (1985). The interplay between randomness and computation is one of the most fas­ cinating scientific phenomena uncovered in the last couple of decades. This interplay is at the heart of modern cryptography and plays a fundamental role in complexity theory at large. Specifically, the interplay of randomness and computation is pivotal to several intriguing notions of probabilistic proof systems and is the focal of the computational approach to randomness. This book provides an introduction to these three, somewhat interwoven domains (i.e., cryptography, proofs and randomness). Modern Cryptography. Whereas classical cryptography was confined to the art of designing and breaking encryption schemes (or "secrecy codes"), Modern Cryptography is concerned with the rigorous analysis of any system which should withstand malicious attempts to abuse it. We emphasize two aspects of the transition from classical to modern cryptography: ( 1) the wide­ ning of scope from one specific task to an utmost wide general class of tasks; and (2) the move from an engineering-art which strives on ad-hoc tricks to a scientific discipline based on rigorous approaches and techniques.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was asked by Springer-Verlag to prepare a second edition of this volume on Linear Optimization and Extensions, which - not exactly contrary to my personal expectations - has apparently been accepted reasonably weIl by the global optimization community. My objective in putting this book together was originally - and still is - to detail the major algorithmic ideas in linear optimization that have evolved in the past fifty years or so and that have changed the historical optimization "landscape" in substantial ways - both theoretically and computationally. While I may have overlooked the importance of some very recent developments - the work by Farid Alizadeh which generalizes linear programming to "sem i-definite" programming is perhaps a candidate for one of my omissions - I think that major new breakthraughs on those two fronts that interest me - theory and computation - have not occurred since this book was published originally. As a consequence I have restricted myself to a thorough re-working of the original manuscript with the goal of making it more readable. Of course, I have taken this opportunity to correct a few "Schönheitsfehler" of the first edition and to add some illustrations. The index to this volume has been extended substantially - to permit a hurried reader a quicker glance at the wealth of topics that were covered nevertheless already in the first edition. As was the case with the first edition, Dr.

Also the present second edition of this book is an introduction to the theory of clas­ sification, enumeration, construction and generation of finite unlabeled structures in mathematics and sciences. Since the publication of the first edition in 1991 the constructive theory of un­ labeled finite structures has made remarkable progress. For example, the first- designs with moderate parameters were constructed, in Bayreuth, by the end of 1994 ([9]). The crucial steps were - the prescription of a suitable group of automorphisms, i. e. a stabilizer, and the corresponding use of Kramer-Mesner matrices, together with - an implementation of an improved version of the LLL-algorithm that allowed to find 0-1-solutions of a system of linear equations with the Kramer-Mesner matrix as its matrix of coefficients. of matrices of the The Kramer-Mesner matrices can be considered as submatrices form A" (see the chapter on group actions on posets, semigroups and lattices). They are associated with the action of the prescribed group G which is a permutation group on a set X of points induced on the power set of X. Hence the discovery of the first 7-designs with small parameters is due to an application of finite group actions. This method used by A. Betten, R. Laue, A. Wassermann and the present author is described in a section that was added to the manuscript of the first edi­ tion.