Linear and Combinatorial Optimization in Ordered Algebraic Structures

For the first time, this book unites different algebraic approaches for discrete optimization and operations research. The presentation of some fundamental directions of this new fast developing area shows the wide range of its applicability.Specifically, the book contains contributions in the following fields: semigroup and semiring theory applied to combinatorial and integer programming, network flow theory in ordered algebraic structures, extremal optimization problems, decomposition principles for discrete structures, Boolean methods in graph theory and applications.

This volume presents a short guide to the extensive literature concerning semir ings along with a complete bibliography. The literature has been created over many years, in variety of languages, by authors representing different schools of mathematics and working in various related fields. In many instances the terminology used is not universal, which further compounds the difficulty of locating pertinent sources even in this age of the Internet and electronic dis semination of research results. So far there has been no single reference that could guide the interested scholar or student to the relevant publications. This book is an attempt to fill this gap. My interest in the theory of semirings began in the early sixties, when to gether with Bogdan W ~glorz I tried to investigate some algebraic aspects of compactifications of topological spaces, semirings of semicontinuous functions, and the general ideal theory for special semirings. (Unfortunately, local alge braists in Poland told me at that time that there was nothing interesting in investigating semiring theory because ring theory was still being developed). However, some time later we became aware of some similar investigations hav ing already been done. The theory of semirings has remained "my first love" ever since, and I have been interested in the results in this field that have been appearing in literature (even though I have not been active in this area myself).

The scope of the volume includes all algorithmic and computational aspects of research on combinatorial designs. Algorithmic aspects include generation, isomorphism and analysis techniques - both heuristic methods used in practice, and the computational complexity of these operations. The scope within design theory includes all aspects of block designs, Latin squares and their variants, pairwise balanced designs and projective planes and related geometries.

The Handbook of Linear Algebra provides comprehensive coverage of linear algebra concepts, applications, and computational software packages in an easy-to-use handbook format. The esteemed international contributors guide you from the very elementary aspects of the subject to the frontiers of current research. The book features an accessibl