Questions tagged [combinatorial-optimization]
Combinatorial optimization typically deals with optimizing over a finite set of objects that have some combinatorial structure (e.g. trees, matchings, matroids). Approximation algorithms, polyhedral methods, and integer programming are all on topic.
43 questions from the last 365 days
3
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1
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149
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How to maximize the variance of a subset of integers?
$\DeclareMathOperator{\Var}{Var}$Given the set of numbers $\Omega := \{1, \ldots, n\}, n \in \mathbb{Z}^+$, how can I choose a subset, $A$ of $\Omega$ , such that $\min(\Var(A), \Var(\Omega \setminus ...
- 41
1
vote
0
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29
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Integral hull of a polyhedron Q is polyhedron
Let $Q \subseteq R^n$ be a rational polyhedron and let $Q_I=Convexhull(Q \cap Z^n)$. By finite basis theorem, we have $Q=P+C$ for some rational polytope $P$ and finitely generated cone $C$ where $C=R_+...
- 21
0
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0
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21
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Easy instance of set cover
I am trying to prove that a natural greedy algorithm solves the following instance of the set cover problem: for a set of elements $e\in U$ with a set of weights $w_e$, we define the cost of a subset ...
- 4,049
0
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0
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22
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Alignment of unit vectors under graph-neighbor constraints with a global vector
Statement
Let $G = (V, E)$ be a connected, unweighted, and undirected graph with $n$ nodes, represented by its adjacency matrix $A$. Suppose each node $i$ is associated with a unit vector $ \mathbf{v}...
0
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0
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24
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Minimizing intersections between spanning trees of graph embeddings in polynomial time
Assume I have $N$ complete graphs $G_1, G_2,...,G_N$, and consider their embeddings $E_1, E_2,...,E_N$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$. Is there a (potentially stochastic) polynomial time algorithm to construct ...
- 1
0
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1
answer
51
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Cycle-Sculpturing with Minimal Vertex-Deletion
given a simple, finite and symmetric graph $G(V,E)$ with $n$ vertices and at least $n$ edges
Question:
how can the smallest set of vertices $W\subset V$ be calculated for which the graph induced by $...
- 13.2k
0
votes
1
answer
236
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Solving a 0-1 quadratic matrix inequality
I am working on a binary optimization problem. So far I have derived the following constraint functions.
\begin{align}
\begin{bmatrix} \left( P + \sum_{i=1}^n (\sum_{j=1}^n x_{i, j} \alpha_j) e_i e_i^...
- 11
0
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0
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36
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Combinatorial optimization problem and solving strategy
Good evening everyone,
I will try to be as succint as possible, pardon my wording as I am not well-versed in combinatorial optimization.
I have defined a problem where I want to minimize the total ...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
28
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Constructing random graphs with given eigenvalues and eigenvectors
In Linial's presentation on SOME PROBLEMS AND RESULTS IN THE
GEOMETRY OF GRAPHS, on slide 7, some relations of properties of graphs to the eigenvalues of their adjacency matrix are listed, e.g.
if $G$...
- 13.2k
4
votes
1
answer
195
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Optimal partition of $n$ points
Given an integer $n$, and 3 real sequences $\{x_1, \dots, x_n\}, \{y_1, \dots, y_n\}$ and $\{w_1, \dots, w_n\}$ with $x_k, y_k, w_k > 0$, for all $k \in \{1, \dots, n\}$. For a fixed $p < n$ ...
- 43
0
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0
answers
176
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How to find a configuration of lines
In $\mathbb{R}^3$, can anyone help find a configuration of 5 lines such that the minimum of the smallest semi-axis lengths of the ellipsoid $ \mathbf{x}^T \mathbf{A} \mathbf{x} = 1 $, where $\mathbf{A}...
- 61
1
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0
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17
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Complexity of optimal cartesian matching
Question:
what is known about the algorithmic aspects of optimally matching a set $\mathcal{P} = \prod\limits_{i=1}^n \left(1,\,\cdots,\,k_i\right)$ of grid-points to a set of $\prod\limits_{i=1}^...
- 13.2k
2
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0
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38
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Cluster minimizing sum of cost of clusters
Given a dataset $X,$ having $p$ features, organize the units $x_i \in X $ into fixed number of clusters $g,$ with fixed cluster size $B.$
Clustering policy: minimize the sum of a linear combination of ...
- 31
6
votes
1
answer
218
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Maximizing the mutual Hamming distance in $\big[{\cal P}([n])\big]^n$
If $X$ is a set and $A,B\subseteq X$ we let the Hamming distance of $A,B$ be defined as $d_H(A,B) = \big|(A\setminus B)\cup(B\setminus A)\big|$. If $\newcommand{\S}{{\cal S}}\S\subseteq {\cal P}(X)$, ...
- 48.9k
1
vote
0
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54
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Finding a path of given length with maximal relative weight
Let $G$ be a directed graph with vertices $V$ and edges $E \subset V\times V$. A path of length $n \geq 2$ in $G$ is a sequence of vertices $(i_{0},i_{1},\ldots,i_{n-1})$ such that $(i_{k},i_{k+1}) \...
- 798
1
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0
answers
48
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How to solve a optimal matching problem where the "quality" of matching is only determined once all nodes are matched
Note: I'm not a mathematician; I'm just a biologist with basic math background trying to solve a scientific problem, so please excuse my ignorance.
The gist of the problem is as follows:
I have two ...
3
votes
1
answer
150
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Optimizing sum of $k$ positive integers with the product $m$
The product of $k$ positive integers $x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_k$ is $m$, I'm wondering how to find the minimum and maximum of $\sum_{i=1}^kx_i$. For the maximization problem, in order to exclude the trivial ...
- 417
1
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0
answers
281
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A question about decomposition of irreducible root system
Fix an irreducible root system $\Phi$ with rank $r$ and a root base $\Delta$ (we only care type ADE). Call a disjoint union $\Phi = \Phi_{1}\sqcup\dotsb\sqcup\Phi_{s}$ a decomposition of $\Phi$ if ...
- 93
6
votes
2
answers
540
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Bound on the number of unit vectors with the same pairwise inner products
I want to know the bound on the number of unit vectors $v_i$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$ such that $\langle v_i, v_j\rangle=c$ for all $i\ne j$. I know this can be upper bounded by the number of equiangular ...
- 163
3
votes
0
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147
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Understanding why $\frac{\phi^5}{2}$ solves this 3D optimization problem, where $\phi$ is the golden ratio
I would like to understand the deep meaning of a solution which arises from an optimization problem discussed in a paper of mine since it can be simply stated as $\frac{\phi^5}{2}$, where $\phi := \...
- 1,451
3
votes
2
answers
336
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Algorithm to evaluate "connectedness" of a binary matrix
I have the following problem: given an $m \times n$ binary matrix $A$ like e.g. the following $9 \times 39$ matrix:
...
- 1,000
8
votes
2
answers
270
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Equal segmentation of a series of numbers
How can a series of real numbers be split into subsets in a way that the sum of the real numbers within each subset is as equal as possible?
Coming across from StackOverflow this is the first time, I'...
- 83
1
vote
0
answers
67
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Conjecture on the increasing efficiency of the shortest minimum-link polygonal chains covering any grids of the form $\{0,1,2\}^k$ as $k$ grows
From the well-known Nine dots problem, we know that we need a polygonal chain with at least $4$ edges to connect the $9$ points of the planar grid $G_{3,2}:=\{\{0, 1, 2\} \times \{0, 1, 2\}\} \subset \...
- 1,451
2
votes
1
answer
112
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Finding survivable paths with a set of vulnerable edges
Consider a graph $G=(V,E)$ and a source-destination pair $(s,t)$. A set of edges $E'\subseteq E$ are vulnerable in the sense that at most $k$ of them may fail. My problem is to find a set of $(s,t)$ ...
- 367
8
votes
1
answer
567
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Joining the $2^k$ points of $\{0,1\}^k$ with the shortest tree
Let $k$ be a given positive integer, and then consider the unit hypercube $\{0, 1\}^k \subset \mathbb{R}^k$ (i.e., a $k$-dimensional "cube" in the well-known Euclidean space).
We need to ...
- 1,451
0
votes
0
answers
123
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A variant of Steiner tree
Consider a directed Steiner tree problem with a source node $s$ a set $T$ of terminals with the following constraint. For each node $v$ on the tree, we assign a branching value $b_v$ as follows. (1) $...
- 367
1
vote
0
answers
88
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Is there an efficient algorithm for finding a fundamental cycle basis of a graph with the fewest odd cycles? Failing that, a hardness result on this?
I can think of a greedy algorithm:
Let $B$ be a fundamental cycle basis of graph $G$ induced by spanning tree (or forest) $T$
For $e\in T$, let $n_+(e)$ ($n_-(e)$) be the number of even (odd) cycles ...
- 33
5
votes
1
answer
383
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Shortest polygonal chain with $6$ edges visiting all the vertices of a cube
I am trying to find which is the minimum total Euclidean length of all the edges of a minimum-link polygonal chain joining the $8$ vertices of a given cube, located in the Euclidean space. In detail, ...
- 1,451
3
votes
1
answer
208
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Approximation of Poset
Let $(X,\leq)$ be a poset, $X=\{x_1,x_2,...,x_n\}$. Preference matrix $\textbf{P}=[p_{ij}]$ (which is known and fixed), satisfies $p_{ij}=1-p_{ji},p_{ii}=\frac{1}{2}$, and
$$\forall i \neq j, x_i \leq ...
- 61
0
votes
0
answers
92
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Algorithm that can solve or approximate the solution to a combination problem
I have a computational problem on my hands and I would like your help.
Here is my problem (simplified)
Let $X = \{x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n\}$ represent a set of $n$ values.
Each value $x_i$ has a ...
- 1
5
votes
2
answers
420
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Maximum determinant of binary matrices with special properties
Let $A$ be an $n$-by-$n$ binary matrix (all elements are in $\{0,1\}$). It is known that the determinant of $A$ is bounded by $O(n^{n/2} / 2^n)$. I am looking for tighter upper bounds for matrices ...
- 3,549
3
votes
0
answers
196
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Optimal set partition
Given a set of elements $S=\{a_1,a_2,\cdots,a_n\}$, my problem is to find a partition $P$, i.e., partition $S$ into $g$ subsets, the objective is to maximize a utility function $f(P)$, under the ...
- 367
3
votes
1
answer
380
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Generating all possible subsets in order of sum
Given a set of positive integers, I am looking for method to algorithmically generate all possible subsets in order of their sum. Because the the count of possible subsets is exponential ($2^n$), it ...
- 81
4
votes
0
answers
229
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Optimal colorings
If $G=(V,E)$ is a graph, we call the smallest cardinal $\kappa$ such that there is a coloring map $c:V\to \kappa$ as the chromatic number of $G$ and denote it by $\chi(G)$.
For any coloring $c:V(G) \...
- 48.9k
5
votes
2
answers
557
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What is the proper name for this "tersest path" problem in Infinite Craft?
The web game Infinite Craft gives you a starting set of elements $V_0\subset V$ and a mapping $E$ of type $V\times V\rightarrow V$. In fact, $F$ is commutative: $E(v_a,v_b) = E(v_b,v_a)$. So another ...
- 677
3
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2
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215
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Is there a closed-form solution for $\max_D \operatorname{Tr}(ADBD)$
Is there a closed-form solution for
$$\max_D \operatorname{Tr}(ADBD)$$
where $D$ is a $N\times N$ diagonal matrix with $m<N$ number of $1$'s and the rest are $0$'s, and $A$ and $B$ are real ...
- 433
1
vote
0
answers
157
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Optimal covering trails for every $k$-dimensional cubic lattice $\mathbb{N}^k := \{(x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n) : x_i \in \mathbb{N} \wedge n \geq 3\}$
After a dozen years spent investigating this particular class of problems, I finally give up and I wish to ask you if any improvement is achievable from here on.
The general problem is as follows:
Let ...
- 1,451
2
votes
1
answer
213
views
Is matrix B obtained from matrix A?
Assuming a matrix $\mathbf{A} \in \mathbb{R}^{4096 \times 4096}$ sampled from a standard normal distribution $N(0, 1)$, and another matrix $\mathbf{B} \in \mathbb{R}^{4096 \times 4096}$ either sampled ...
- 49
2
votes
1
answer
152
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First known proof of the $2 \cdot n-2$ Theorem for the planar generalization of the Nine dots problem
Reading the Wikipedia page about the well-know Nine dots puzzle, I have just seen that the planar generalization of this problem would have been proven in 1956 (see Wikipedia: Nine dots puzzle), while ...
- 1,451
0
votes
0
answers
36
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ILPs with square constraint matrix
Given the Integer Linear Programming ($\text{ILP}$) problem
\begin{array}{ll}
\text{minimize} & c^T x \\
\text{subject to}& \mathbf{A}^T x \ge b \\
\text{where}&c,x,b\in\mathbb{N}_0^n,\\ &...
- 13.2k
0
votes
0
answers
16
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Complexity of finding single source paths with capacity constraints and length constraints
Let $G=(V,A)$ be a directed graph with distinguished vertex $s\in V$ and let $c:A\rightarrow{\mathbb N}$ denote arc capacities. For any $t\in V,t\not=s$ we are given two numbers: $C_{t},L_{t}$. Let $...
- 21
0
votes
0
answers
26
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Monotony of enforced subtour merging
Is it true that for a symmetric TSP instance in the sequence of edges generated by successively:
calculating the optimal 2-factor
adding cardinality constraints on the edgesets of the 2-factor's ...
- 13.2k
0
votes
0
answers
64
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Alternatives to McCormick Envelope
I have an optimization problem for which I have the optimal solution obtained by the ILP.
However, when I introduced the McCormick Envelope to replace the product of a bi-linear term in its LP ...
- 3