Boolean Methods In Operations Research And Related Areas

Boolean Methods in Operations Research and Related Areas

In classical analysis, there is a vast difference between the class of problems that may be handled by means of the methods of calculus and the class of problems requiring combinatorial techniques. With the advent of the digital computer, the distinction begins to blur, and with the increasing emphasis on problems involving optimization over structures, tIlE' distinction vanishes. What is necessary for the analytic and computational treatment of significant questions arising in modern control theory, mathematical economics, scheduling theory, operations research, bioengineering, and so forth is a new and more flexible mathematical theory which subsumes both the cla8sical continuous and discrete t 19orithms. The work by HAMMER (IVANESCU) and RUDEANU on Boolean methods represents an important step in this dnectlOn, and it is thus a great pleasure to welcome it into print. It will certainly stimulate a great deal of additional research in both theory and application. RICHARD BELLMAN University of Southern California FOf(,WOl'

Boolean methods in operations research and related areas

Integer Programming and Related Areas

Integer Prograw~ing is one of the most fascinating and difficult areas in the field of Mathematical Optimization. Due to this fact notable research contributions to Integer Programming have been made in very different branches of mathematics and its applications. Since these publications are scattered over many journals, proceedings volumes, monographs, and working papers, a comprehensive bibliography of all these sources is a helpful tool even for specialists in this field. I initiated this compilation of literature in 1970 at the Institut fur ~konometrie und Operations Research, University of Bonn. Since then many collaborators have contributed to and worked on it. Among them Dipl.-Math. Claus Kastning has done the bulk of the work. With great perseverance and diligence he has gathered all the material and checked it with the original sources. The main aim was to incorporate rare and not easily accessible sources like Russian journals, preprints or unpublished papers. Without the invaluable and dedicated engagement of Claus Kastning the bibliography would never have reached this final version. For this reason he must be considered its responsible editor. As with any other collection this literature list has a subjective viewpoint and may be in some sense incomplete. We have however tried to be as complete as possible. The bibliography contains 4704 different publications by 6767 authors which were classified by 11839 descriptor entries.