We consider a complex planning problem in integrated steel production. A sequence of coils of sheet metal needs to be color coated in consecutive stages. Di erent coil geometries and changes of coatings may necessitate time-consuming setup work. In most coating stages one can choose between two parallel color tanks in order to reduce setup times. … Read more
In this paper we deal with the Critical Node Problem (CNP), i.e., the problem of searching for a given number K of nodes in a graph G, whose removal minimizes the number of connections between pairs of nodes in the residual graph. While the NP-completeness of this problem for general graphs has been already established … Read more
We consider optimization of nonlinear objective functions that balance $d$ linear criteria over $n$-element independence systems presented by linear-optimization oracles. For $d=1$, we have previously shown that an $r$-best approximate solution can be found in polynomial time. Here, using an extended Erdos-Ko-Rado theorem of Frankl, we show that for $d=2$, finding a $\rho n$-best solution … Read more
We study the maximum flow problem subject to binary disjunctive constraints in a directed graph: A negative disjunctive constraint states that a certain pair of arcs in a digraph cannot be simultaneously used for sending flow in a feasible solution. In contrast to this, positive disjunctive constraints force that for certain pairs of arcs at … Read more
We consider the minimum spanning tree problem with conflict constraints (MSTC). It is observed that computing an $\epsilon$-optimal solution to MSTC is NP-hard for any $\epsilon >0$. For a general conflict graph, computing even a feasible solution is NP-hard. When the underlying graph is a cactus, we show that the feasibility problem is polynomially bounded … Read more
For a given connected graph G on n vertices and m edges, we prove that its independence number α(G) is at least ((2m+n+2) -sqrt(sqr(2m+n+2)-16sqr(n)))/8. ArticleDownload View PDF
We show that multilinear (tensor) analogues of many efficiently computable problems in numerical linear algebra are NP-hard. Our list here includes: determining the feasibility of a system of bilinear equations, deciding whether a tensor possesses a given eigenvalue, singular value, or spectral norm; approximating an eigenvalue, eigenvector, singular vector, or spectral norm; determining a best … Read more
We present a branching scheme for some Vertex Coloring Problems based on a new graph operator called extension. The extension operator is used to generalize the branching scheme proposed by Zykov for the basic problem to a broad class of coloring problems, such as the graph multicoloring, where each vertex requires a multiplicity of colors, … Read more
We study the minimum spanning tree problem, the maximum matching problem and the shortest path problem subject to binary disjunctive constraints: A negative disjunctive constraint states that a certain pair of edges cannot be contained simultaneously in a feasible solution. It is convenient to represent these negative disjunctive constraints in terms of a so-called conflict … Read more
We consider a generalization of the well known greedy algorithm, called $m$-step greedy algorithm, where $m$ elements are examined in each iteration. When $m=1$ or $2$, the algorithm reduces to the standard greedy algorithm. For $m=3$ we provide a complete characterization of the independence system, called trioid, where the $m$-step greedy algorithm guarantees an optimal … Read more