Approximation Algorithms by Vazirani, Vijay Vazirani, Vijay

From the Publisher

"The challenge met by this book is to capture the beauty and excitement of work in this thriving field and to convey in a lucid manner the underlying theory and methodology. Many of the research results presented have been simplified, and new insights provided. Perhaps the most important aspect of the book is that it shows simple ways of talking about complex, powerful algorithmic ideas by giving intuitive proofs, by writing algorithms in plain English, and by providing numerous critical examples and illustrations." This book will be of interest to the scientific community at large and in particular, to students and researchers in Computer Science, Operations Research, and Discrete Mathematics. It can be used both as a text in a graduate course on approximation algorithms and as a supplementary text in basic undergraduate and graduate courses on algorithms.

What People Are Saying

Laszlo Lovasz
Following the development of basic combinatorial optimization techniques in the 1960s and 1970s, a main open question was to develop a theory of approximation algorithms. In the 1990s, parallel developments in techniques for designing approximation algorithms as well as methods for proving hardness of approximation results have led to a beautiful theory. The need to solve truly large instances of computationally hard problems, such as those arising from the Internet or the human genome project, has also increased interest in this theory. The field is currently very active, with the toolbox of approximation algorithm design techniques getting always richer. It is a pleasure to recommend Vijay Vazirani's well-written and comprehensive book on this important and timely topic. I am sure the reader will find it most useful both as an introduction to approximability as well as a reference to the many aspects of approximation algorithms.
—Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research

Richard Karp
"This book covers the dominant theoretical approaches to the approximate solution of hard combinatorial optimization and enumeration problems. It contains elegant combinatorial theory, useful and interesting algorithms, and deep results about the intrinsic complexity of combinatorial problems. Its clarity of exposition and excellent selection of exercises will make it accessible and appealing to all those with a taste for mathematics and algorithms.
—University of California at Berkeley

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents