Contents 1 Introduction 2 1.1 Notations and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 Problem Formulations 4 2.1 Integer Programming Formulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2 Continuous Formulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3 Computational Complexity 12 4 Bounds and Estimates 15 5 Exact Algorithms 19 5.1 Enumerative Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 5.2 Exact Algorithms for the Unweighted Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 5.3 Exact Algorithms for the Weighted Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 6 Heuristics 27 6.1 Sequential Greedy Heuristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.2 Local Search Heuristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6.3 Advanced Search Heuristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 6.3.1 Simulated annealing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 6.3.2 Neural networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

We present a method for solving the independent set formulation of the graph coloring problem (where there is one variable for each independent set in the graph). We use a column generation method for implicit optimization of the linear program at each node of the branch-and-bound tree. This approach, while requiring the solution of a difficult subproblem as well as needing sophisticated branching rules, solves small to moderate size problems quickly. We have also implemented an exact graph coloring algorithm based on DSATUR for comparison. Implementation details and computational experience are presented. 1 INTRODUCTION The graph coloring problem is one of the most useful models in graph theory. This problem has been used to solve problems in school timetabling [10], computer register allocation [7, 8], electronic bandwidth allocation [11], and many other areas. These applications suggest that effective algorithms for solving the graph coloring problem would be of great importance. D...

Combinatorial auctions where bidders can bid on bundles of items can lead to more economically efficient allocations, but determining the winners is NP-complete and inapproximable. We present CABOB, a sophisticated optimal search algorithm for the problem. It uses decomposition techniques, upper and lower bounding (also across components), elaborate and dynamically chosen bid-ordering heuristics, and a host of structural observations. CABOB attempts to capture structure in any instance without making assumptions about the instance distribution. Experiments against the fastest prior algorithm, CPLEX 8.0, show that CABOB is often faster, seldom drastically slower, and in many cases drastically faster—especially in cases with structure. CABOB’s search runs in linear space and has significantly better anytime performance than CPLEX. We also uncover interesting aspects of the problem itself. First, problems with short bids, which were hard for the first generation of specialized algorithms, are easy. Second, almost all of the CATS distributions are easy, and the run time is virtually unaffected by the number of goods. Third, we test several random restart strategies, showing that they do not help on this problem—the run-time distribution does not have a heavy tail.

vi Declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii List of Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv I Orthogonal Graph Drawing 1 1

Given an undirected graph with weights on the vertices, the maximum weight clique problem (MWCP) is to find a subset of mutually adjacent vertices (i.e., a clique) having largest total weight. This is a generalization of the classical problem of finding the maximum cardinality clique of an unweighted graph, which arises as a special case of the MWCP when all the weights associated to the vertices are equal. The problem is known to be NP -hard for arbitrary graphs and, according to recent theoretical results, so is the problem of approximating it within a constant factor. Although there has recently been much interest around neural network algorithms for the unweighted maximum clique problem, no effort has been directed so far towards its weighted counterpart. In this paper, we present a parallel, distributed heuristic for approximating the MWCP based on dynamics principles developed and studied in various branches of mathematical biology. The proposed framework centers aroun...

This paper introduces a branch-and-bound algorithm for the maximum clique problem which applies existing clique finding and vertex coloring heuristics to determine lower and upper bounds for the size of a maximum clique. Computational results on a variety of graphs indicate the proposed procedure in most instances outperforms leading algorithms.

Given a graph, in the maximum clique problem one wants to find the largest number of vertices, any two of which are adjacent. In the maximum-weight clique problem, the vertices have positive, integer weights, and one wants to find a clique with maximum weight. A recent algorithm for the maximum clique problem is here used as a basis for developing an algorithm for the weighted case. Computational experiments with random graphs show that this new algorithm is faster than earlier algorithms in many cases. A set of weighted graphs obtained from the problem of constructing good constant weight error-correcting codes are proposed as test cases for maximum-weight clique algorithms

We compute approximate solutions to the maximum stable set problem and the minimum graph coloring problem using a positive semidefinite relaxation. The positive semidefinite programs are solved using an implementation of the dual scaling algorithm that takes advantage of the sparsity inherent in most graphs and the structure inherent in the problem formulation. From the solution to the relaxation, we apply a randomized algorithm to find approximate maximum stable sets and a modification of a popular heuristic to find graph colorings. We obtained high quality answers for graphs with over 1000 vertices and almost 7000 edges.

We describe three combinatorial branch-and-bound solvers for the maximum weight independent set problem. All use weighted clique covers to generate upper bounds, and all branch according to the method of Balas and Yu (1986). One extends and speeds up the method of Babel (1994). A second one employs a modified method from Balas and Yu (1986) to produce clique covers that share structural similarities with those produced by Babel (1994). Each of these improves on its predecessor. A third solver is a hybrid of the other two. It yields the best known results on some graphs

ization problems. Nonlinear programming did not receive as much attention in this respect until the recent work by Goemans and Williamson [62]. They use semidefinite programs, which are nonlinear programs, to obtain approximation solutions with much better approximation factors. For example, the best previously known approximation algorithm for MAXCUT, which was invented twenty years ago, has approximation factor 0.5 [137]. The algorithm of Goemans and Williamson dramatically improves the approximation factor to 0.878. Inspired by the work on MAXCUT, Karger, Motwani, and Sudan [86] adapt the same technique and obtain the currently best approximation algorithm for coloring a k-colorable graph with the fewest possible number of colors. The approximation ratio is improved by a factor of \Omega\Gamma n 2=k ) over the best previously known result [29]. Later Karger and Blum give the best known approximation algorithm for color