Integer programming

Abstract

Integer programming is an expressive framework for modeling and solving discrete optimization problems that arise in a variety of contexts in the engineering sciences. Integer programming representations work with implicit algebraic constraints (linear equations and inequalities on integer valued variables) to capture the feasible set of alternatives, and linear objective functions (to minimize or maximize over the feasible set) that specify the criterion for defining optimality. This algebraic approach permits certain natural extensions of the powerful methodologies of linear programming to be brought to bear on combinatorial optimization and on fundamental algorithmic questions in the geometry of numbers.