| Review: |
Fifty years ago two articles were published that presented the Hungarian Algorithm, the first polynomial-time method for the assignment problem, giving an easy solution to real-world instances that no computer on Earth could then handle. This, and other fundamental results on linear and integer programming, led to a research area that is now known as combinatorial optimisation. This book describes this huge area, beginning in the 1920s with studies of matching problems, and examining the theoretical, algorithmic and practical developments of the various assignment problems. There are chapters covering: The theoretical foundations; Bipartite matching algorithms; Linear sum assignment problems; Other types of assignment problems; Quadratic assignment problems; and Multi-index assignment problems. |