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
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In classical analysis, there is a vast difference between the class of problems that may be handled by means of the methods of calculus and the class of problems requiring combinatorial techniques. With the advent of the digital computer, the distinction begins to blur, and with the increasing emphasis on problems involving optimization over structures, tIlE' distinction vanishes. What is necessary for the analytic and computational treatment of significant questions arising in modern control theory, mathematical economics, scheduling theory, operations research, bioengineering, and so forth is a new and more flexible mathematical theory which subsumes both the cla8sical continuous and discrete t 19orithms. The work by HAMMER (IVANESCU) and RUDEANU on Boolean methods represents an important step in this dnectlOn, and it is thus a great pleasure to welcome it into print. It will certainly stimulate a great deal of additional research in both theory and application. RICHARD BELLMAN University of Southern California FOf(,WOl'

Anlasslich des 65. Geburtstages von Hans Paul Kunzi haben sich Weggefahrten, Mitarbeiter und Schuler aus den Jahren seines Wirkens als Hochschullehrer zusammengetan, um wenigstens punktuell aufzu zeigen, wie und wohin in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten verschiedene theoretische und empirische Entwicklungen verlaufen sind, die der Jubilar zumindest in der Schweiz und zu einem guten Teil auch daruber hinaus mitaufgebaut und in den Anfangen beeinflusst hat. Zu diesem Vorhaben fanden die Herausgeber vielseitige Unterstutzung. Zunachst von den beteiligten Autoren, die mit spontanen Zusagen und in vorbildlicher Weise ihre Beitrage termingerecht fertiggestellt haben. Daruber hinaus hat ein groesserer Kreis von Persoenlichkeiten mit Rat und Tat die Entstehung der Schrift gefoerdert, wobei besonders auch auf ein grosses Entgegenkommen des Springer-Verlages zu verweisen ist. Allen moechten wir fur die Hilfe aufrichtig danken. Angesichts der Tatsache, dass Hans Paul Kunzi bereits vor fast zwei Jahrzehnten seine wissenschaftliche Laufbahn zugunsten einer anderen Verpflichtung aufgegeben hat, liegt die Frage nahe, warum wir -nach wie vor der akademischen Welt verbunden -heute noch von der Persoenlichkeit Kunzi beeindruckt sind. Dazu sei kurz auf sein damaliges Wirken als Professor an der Universitat Zurich und an der ETH Zurich zuruckgeblendet.