The C.I.M.E. Summer School at Como in 1986 was the first in that series on the subject of combinatorial optimization. Situated between combinatorics, computer science and operations research, the subject draws on a variety of mathematical methods to deal with problems motivated by real-life applications. Recent research has focussed on the connections to theoretical computer science, in particular to computational complexity and algorithmic issues. The Summer School's activity centered on the 4 main lecture courses, the notes of which are included in this volume:

Inhalt

Quadratic functions of binary variables.- On binary group problems having the Fulkerson property.- Examples and algorithmic properties of greedoids.- Combinatorial structures and combinatorial optimization.- A polynomial algorithm for partitioning line-graphs.- Structural dependence and systems of equations.- Best network flow bounds for the quadratic knapsack problem.- (K4-e)-free perfect graphs and star cutsets.- A bound on the roof-duality gap.- Hyperpaths and shortest hyperpaths.- A characterization of centroidal graphs.- Topological network synthesis.