40 KAM Mathematical Colloquium
Prof. RAINER E. BURKARD
Technische Universitaet Graz
SELECTED TOPICS ON ASSIGNMENT PROBLEMS
March 15, 2001
Lecture Room S3, Charles University, Malostranske nam. 25, Praha
1
14:00 PM
Abstract
Assignment problems play a central role in mathematical programming, having
been studied for more than 50 years. In this survey we discuss recent developments
in the areas of bipartite matching as well as linear and quadratic assignment
problems. Among other topics, we describe a unifying algebraic theory for
handling different objective functions and discuss the different asymptotic
behaviour of linear and quadratic assignment problems. In particular we
point out that the strange asymptotic behaviour of quadratic assignment
problems can be derived by means of thermodynamical considerations.