Polyhedral Combinatorics : an Annotated Bibliography
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Polyhedral combinatorics : an annotated bibliography Citation for published version (APA): Aardal, K. I., & Weismantel, R. (1996). Polyhedral combinatorics : an annotated bibliography. (Universiteit Utrecht. UU-CS, Department of Computer Science; Vol. 9627). Utrecht University. Document status and date: Published: 01/01/1996 Document Version: Publisher’s PDF, also known as Version of Record (includes final page, issue and volume numbers) Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. 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If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement: www.tue.nl/taverne Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at: [email protected] providing details and we will investigate your claim. Download date: 28. Sep. 2021 Polyhedral combinatorics: An annotated bibliography Karen Aardal Utrecht University, Utrecht Rob ert Weismantel Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum, Berlin Polyhedral combinatorics is the study of the integer programming p olyhedron P = convX = convfx 2 X g; n where X is given as a subset of the integer lattice ZZ and conv denotes the convex hull op erator. By Weyl's Theorem H. Weyl 1935. Elementare Theorie der konvexen Polyeder. Comentarii Mathematici Helvetici 7, 290{306, mn m there exists a matrix B 2 IR andavector of right hand sides b 2 IR such that n P = fx 2 IR : Bx bg: n T The system Bx b is said to describ e P , and eachhyp erplane fx 2 IR : B x = b g i i is called a cutting plane. One of the central questions in p olyhedral combinatorics is to nd the cutting planes that describ e P . This question is the sub ject of this chapter. We start with a section on b o oks and collections of survey articles that treat p olyhedral combinatorics in detail. x2oninteger programming by linear programming discusses general schemes by which all cutting planes are generated. We discuss the separation problem, the concepts of total unimo dularity and total dual integrality, and give a reference to the computational complexity of deriving an explicit description of convX . For NP-hard problems, such as the knapsack, covering, packing, partitioning or mixed integer ow problems, one cannot exp ect to derive an explicit description of P . Then it is of interest to describ e the asso ciated p olyhedra partially. Some articles on this issue are listed in x3. Our p olicy in selecting references has b een as follows. Wehavechosen b o oks that give a mo dern account of p olyhedral combinatorics. The purp ose of x2 is to review the most imp ortant theoretical results. When selecting problems for x3wechose basic combinatorial structures that form substructures of a large collection of combinatorial optimization problems. Some prominent problems of this typ e are treated in separate chapters of this b o ok, such as the traveling salesman problem, and the maximum cut problem, and are therefore not included here. This article will app ear as Chapter 3 in the b o ok Annotated Bibliographies in Combinatorial Optimization, M. Dell'Amico, F. Maoli, S. Martello eds., Wiley, Chichester. 1 1 Bo oks In this section we present a selection of b o oks that are often used as references, and that contain an in-depth treatment of p olyhedral combinatorics. A. Schrijver 1986. Theory of Linear and Integer Programming, Wiley, Chichester, is a broad b o ok directed to researchers. It contains much more than p olyhedral combinatorics, and is therefore particularly useful as it puts p olyhedral combinatorics in the general context of linear and integer programming. M. Grotschel, L. Lov asz, A. Schrijver 1988. Geometric Algorithms and Combinatorial Optimization, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, derives algorithmic versions of results from geometry and numb er theory, and links them to combinatorial optimization. One of the outstanding results in p olyhedral com- binatorics, namely that the separation problem and the optimization problem for a family of p olyhedra are p olynomially equivalent, is discussed extensively. G.L. Nemhauser, L.A. Wolsey 1988. Integer and Combinatorial Optimization, Wiley, New York, treats all asp ects of p olyhedral combinatorics. Next to the general theory, it also gives examples of problem-sp eci c results, b oth with resp ect to families of strong valid inequalities, and separation. The b o ok M. Padb erg 1995. Linear Optimization and Extensions, Springer, Berlin, has a comprehensivechapter on the theory of p olyhedra. The b o ok discusses all central issues in p olyhedral combinatorics, and the links b etween optimization and separation. The following b o oks contain selections of survey pap ers related to p olyhedral com- binatorics: W. Co ok, P.D. Seymour eds. 1990. Polyhedral Combinatorics. DIMACS Series in Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science 1, AMS, Providence, ACM, New York. R.L. Graham, M. Grotschel, L. Lov asz eds. 1995. Handbook of Combinatorics,Vol I I, North-Holland, Amsterdam. Even though the central theme of the following b o oks is not p olyhedral combina- torics, we still wanttomention them as they give considerable insight in the study of p olyhedra. E.L. Lawler 1976. Combinatorial Optimization: Networks and Matroids, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York. L. Lov asz, M.D. Plummer 1986. Matching Theory,Akad emiai Kiad o, Budap est. K. Trump er 1992. Matroid Decomposition, Academic Press, San Diego. R.K. Ahuja, T.L. Magnanti, J.B. Orlin 1993. Network Flows, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey. G.M. Ziegler 1995. Lectures on Polytopes, Springer-Verlag, New York. 2 2 Integer Programming by Linear Programming T If a linear description of convX isknown, then one can solve the problem minfc x : x 2 X g by linear programming techniques, which is computationally easy. n There is one sp ecial case where, for every integral vector b 2 IR , the integrality n of the p olyhedron fx 2 IR : Ax bg is guaranteed. This situation arises when the matrix A is totally unimo dular, i.e., each sub determinantofA is either 1, 0 or 1. Within the last 40 years a deep theory on totally unimo dular matrices has emerged that we cannot discuss here. The interested reader is referred to the b o oks of Schrijver and Trump er listed in x1 for references and surveys on this sub ject. If the constraint matrix A is not totally unimo dular, then the integrality of the linear programming relaxation is quite rare. However, a linear description of the convex hull of all the feasible integer p oints of the problem can always b e constructed. This topic is discussed next. n For a set X = fx 2 ZZ : Ax bg, let convX b e the p olyhedron de ned as the + n convex hull of all the p oints in X , and let fx 2 IR : Ax bg b e its linear pro- + gramming relaxation. If the constraint matrix A, and the vector of right-hand sides b are integral, and if the set X is b ounded, then there exists an implementation of Go- mory's cutting plane algorithm, such that for every ob jective function the pro cedure terminates after a nite numb er of iterations with an integral optimum solution. R.E. Gomory 1958. Outline of an algorithm for integer solutions to linear programs. Bul l. American Math. Soc. 64, 275{278. If the co ecients of A and b are real numb ers, and if the feasible set is b ounded, then Chv atal's rounding scheme will pro duce convX after a nite numb er of itera- tions. V. Chv atal 1973. Edmonds p olytop es and a hierarchy of combinatorial problems. Discr. Math. 4, 185{224> An elegantway to formulate, and even generalize Chv atal's result was presented by Schrijver, A. Schrijver 1980. On cutting planes. M. Deza, I.G. Rosenb erg eds.. Combinatorics 79 Part II, Ann. Discr. Math. 9, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 291{296. Schrijver considered the case where the set of feasible solutions is not necessarily b ounded, and where the entries of A and b are rational numb ers. In each step of the algorithm he derives a system of linear inequalities Bx d that is totally dual integral TDI, and where all entries of B are integral, and rounds down the elements of the vector d. A rational system Bx d of linear inequalities is called TDI if for each n T T ;y B = cg is nite, the minimum is at- integral vector c such that minfy d : y 2 IR + tained byanintegral vector.