Annals of Discrete Mathematics Series

Algorithmic Aspects of Combinatorics

Combinatorial Mathematics, Optimal Designs, and Their Applications

The Cambridge Graph Theory Conference, held at Trinity College from 11 to 13 March 1981, brought together top ranking workers from diverse areas of the subject. The papers presented were by invitation only. This volume contains most of the contniutions, suitably refereed and revised. For many years now, graph theory has been developing at a great pace and in many directions. In order to emphasize the variety of questions and to preserve the freshness of research, the theme of the meeting was not restricted. Consequently, the papers in this volume deal with many aspects of graph theory, including colouring, connectivity, cycles, Ramsey theory, random graphs, flows, simplicial decompositions and directed graphs. A number of other papers are concerned with related areas, including hypergraphs, designs, algorithms, games and social models. This wealth of topics should enhance the attractiveness of the volume.

Combinatorics 79. Part I

Studies in Integer Programming

Studies on Graphs and Discrete Programming

Topics on Steiner Systems

The object of this book is to provide an account of the results and methods used in combinatorial theories: Graph Theory, Matching Theory, Hamiltonian Problems, Hypergraph Theory, Designs, Steiner Systems, Latin Squares, Coding Matroids, Complexity Theory. In publishing this volume, the editors do not intend to discuss all the classical open problems in combinatorics for which an algebraic approach turns out to be useful. The work is a selection which is intended for specialists, as well as for graduate students who may also be interested in survey papers. The work features a special section which contains a list of unsolved problems proposed by the participants.

Combinatorial and Geometric Structures and Their Applications

Combinatorics 79. Part II

Advances in Graph Theory

Linear and Combinatorial Optimization in Ordered Algebraic Structures

Recent developments in all aspects of combinatorial and incidence geometry are covered in this volume, including their links with the foundations of geometry, graph theory and algebraic structures, and the applications to coding theory and computer science. Topics covered include Galois geometries, blocking sets, affine and projective planes, incidence structures and their automorphism groups. Matroids, graph theory and designs are also treated, along with weak algebraic structures such as near-rings, near-fields, quasi-groups, loops, hypergroups etc., and permutation sets and groups. The vitality of combinatorics today lies in its important interactions with computer science. The problems which arise are of a varied nature and suitable techniques to deal with them have to be devised for each situation; one of the special features of combinatorics is the often sporadic nature of solutions, stemming from its links with number theory. The branches of combinatorics are many and various, and all of them are represented in the 56 papers in this volume.

Combinatorial problems have been from the very beginning part of the history of mathematics. By the Sixties, the main classes of combinatorial problems had been defined. During that decade, a great number of research contributions in graph theory had been produced, which laid the foundations for most of the research in graph optimization in the following years. During the Seventies, a large number of special purpose models were developed. The impressive growth of this field since has been strongly determined by the demand of applications and influenced by the technological increases in computing power and the availability of data and software. The availability of such basic tools has led to the feasibility of the exact or well approximate solution of large scale realistic combinatorial optimization problems and has created a number of new combinatorial problems.

Algebraic and Geometric Combinatorics

Theory and Practice of Combinatorics

Combinatorics '81

The purpose of this book is to present selected results on perfect graphs in a single volume. These take the form of reprinted classical papers, survey papers or new results.

For the first time, this book unites different algebraic approaches for discrete optimization and operations research. The presentation of some fundamental directions of this new fast developing area shows the wide range of its applicability. Specifically, the book contains contributions in the following fields: semigroup and semiring theory applied to combinatorial and integer programming, network flow theory in ordered algebraic structures, extremal optimization problems, decomposition principles for discrete structures, Boolean methods in graph theory and applications.

Among the participants discussing recent trends in their respective fields and in areas of common interest in these proceedings are such world-famous geometers as H.S.M. Coxeter, L. Danzer, D.G. Larman and J.M. Wills, and equally famous graph-theorists B. Bollobás, P. Erdös and F. Harary. In addition to new results in both geometry and graph theory, this work includes articles involving both of these two fields, for instance ``Convexity, Graph Theory and Non-Negative Matrices'', ``Weakly Saturated Graphs are Rigid'', and many more. The volume covers a broad spectrum of topics in graph theory, geometry, convexity, and combinatorics. The book closes with a number of abstracts and a collection of open problems raised during the conference.

Orders: Description and Roles

This volume contains nine selected papers presented at the Borgholm conference. They were chosen on the basis of their immediate relevance to the most fundamental aspects of the theory of computation and the newest developments in this area. These papers, which have been extended and refereed, fall into eight categories: 1. Constructive Mathematics in Models of Computation and Programming; 2. Abstract Calculi and Denotational Semantics; 3. Theory of Machines, Computations and Languages; 4. Nondeterminism, Concurrency and Distributed Computing; 5. Abstract Algebras, Logics and Combinatorics in Computation Theory; 6. General Computability and Decidability; 7. Computational and Arithmetic Complexity; 8. Analysis of Algorithms and Feasible Computing.

The scope of the volume includes all algorithmic and computational aspects of research on combinatorial designs. Algorithmic aspects include generation, isomorphism and analysis techniques - both heuristic methods used in practice, and the computational complexity of these operations. The scope within design theory includes all aspects of block designs, Latin squares and their variants, pairwise balanced designs and projective planes and related geometries.

Combinatorics has not been an established branch of mathematics for very long: the last quarter of a century has seen an explosive growth in the subject. This growth has been largely due to the doyen of combinatorialists, Paul Erds, whose penetrating insight and insatiable curiosity has provided a huge stimulus for workers in the field. There is hardly any branch of combinatorics that has not been greatly enriched by his ideas. This volume is dedicated to Paul Erds on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday.

This study of matching theory deals with bipartite matching, network flows, and presents fundamental results for the non-bipartite case. It goes on to study elementary bipartite graphs and elementary graphs in general. Further discussed are 2-matchings, general matching problems as linear programs, the Edmonds Matching Algorithm (and other algorithmic approaches), f-factors and vertex packing.

This volume presents four machine-independent theories of computational complexity, which have been chosen for their intrinsic importance and practical relevance. The book includes a wealth of results - classical, recent, and others which have not been published before. In developing the mathematics underlying the size, dynamic and structural complexity measures, various connections with mathematical logic, constructive topology, probability and programming theories are established. The facts are presented in detail. Extensive examples are provided, to help clarify notions and constructions. The lists of exercises and problems include routine exercises, interesting results, as well as some open problems.

Collected in this volume are most of the important theorems and algorithms currently known for planar graphs, together with constructive proofs for the theorems. Many of the algorithms are written in Pidgin PASCAL, and are the best-known ones; the complexities are linear or 0(nlogn). The first two chapters provide the foundations of graph theoretic notions and algorithmic techniques. The remaining chapters discuss the topics of planarity testing, embedding, drawing, vertex- or edge-coloring, maximum independence set, subgraph listing, planar separator theorem, Hamiltonian cycles, and single- or multicommodity flows. Suitable for a course on algorithms, graph theory, or planar graphs, the volume will also be useful for computer scientists and graph theorists at the research level. An extensive reference section is included.

Haim Hanani pioneered the techniques for constructing designs and the theory of pairwise balanced designs, leading directly to Wilson's Existence Theorem. He also led the way in the study of resolvable designs, covering and packing problems, latin squares, 3-designs and other combinatorial configurations. The Hanani volume is a collection of research and survey papers at the forefront of research in combinatorial design theory, including Professor Hanani's own latest work on Balanced Incomplete Block Designs. Other areas covered include Steiner systems, finite geometries, quasigroups, and t-designs.

This monograph is based on a series of lectures given by the author at the first Advanced Research Institute on Discrete Applied Mathematics, held at Rutgers University. It emphasizes connections between the representational aspects of mixed integer programming and applied logic, as well as discussing logic-based approaches to decision support which help to create more `intelligent' systems. Dividing naturally into two parts, the first four chapters are an overview of mixed-integer programming representability techniques. This is followed by five chapters on applied logic, expert systems, logic and databases, and complexity theory. It concludes with a summary of open research issues and an attempt to extrapolate trends in this rapidly developing area.

This volume deals with a variety of problems involving cycles in graphs and circuits in digraphs. Leading researchers in this area present here 3 survey papers and 42 papers containing new results. There is also a collection of unsolved problems.