Assignment Problems

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of assignment problems from their conceptual beginnings in the 1920s through present-day theoretical, algorithmic, and practical developments. The authors have organized the book into 10 self-contained chapters to make it easy for readers to use the specific chapters of interest to them without having to read the book linearly. The topics covered include bipartite matching algorithms, linear assignment problems, quadratic assignment problems, multi-index assignment problems, and many variations of these problems. Exercises in the form of numerical examples provide readers with a method of self-study or students with homework problems, and an associated webpage offers applets that readers can use to execute some of the basic algorithms as well as links to computer codes that are available online. Audience: Assignment Problems is a useful tool for researchers, practitioners, and graduate students. Researchers will benefit from the detailed exposition of theory and algorithms related to assignment problems, including the basic linear sum assignment problem and its many variations. Practitioners will learn about practical applications of the methods, the performance of exact and heuristic algorithms, and software options. This book also can serve as a text for advanced courses in discrete mathematics, integer programming, combinatorial optimization, and algorithmic computer science. Contents: Preface; Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Theoretical Foundations; Chapter 3: Bipartite Matching Algorithms; Chapter 4: Linear Sum Assignment Problem; Chapter 5: Further Results on the Linear Sum Assignment Problem; Chapter 6: Other Types of Linear Assignment Problems; Chapter 7: Quadratic Assignment Problems: Formulations and Bounds; Chapter 8: Quadratic Assignment Problems: Algorithms; Chapter 9: Other Types of Quadratic Assignment Problems; Chapter 10: Multi-index Assignment Problems; Bibliography; Author Index; Subject Index