Invitation to Fixed Parameter Algorithms

by Rolf Niedermeier

Overview

A fixed-parameter is an algorithm that provides an optimal solution to a combinatorial problem. This research-level text is an application-oriented introduction to the growing and highly topical area of the development and analysis of efficient fixed-parameter algorithms for hard problems.
The book is divided into three parts: a broad introduction that provides the general philosophy and motivation; followed by coverage of algorithmic methods developed over the years in fixed-parameter algorithmics forming the core of the book; and a discussion of the essential from parameterized hardness theory with a focus on W [1]-hardness, which parallels NP-hardness, then stating some relations to polynomial-time approximation algorithms, and finishing up with a list of selected case studies to show the wide range of applicability of the presented methodology.
Aimed at graduate and research mathematicians, programmers, algorithm designers and computer scientists, the book introduces the basic techniques and results and provides a fresh view on this highly innovative field of algorithmic research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198566076
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/30/2006
Series:	Oxford Lecture Series in Mathematics and Its Applications , #31
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	9.48(w) x 6.34(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

Universitaet Jena

Table of Contents

Part I: Foundations1. Introduction to Fixed-Parameter Algorithms2. Preliminaries and Agreements3. Parameterized Complexity Theory - A Primer4. Vertex Cover - An Illustrative Example5. The Art of Problem Parameterization6. Summary and Concluding RemarksPart II: Algorithmic Methods7. Data Reduction and Problem Kernels8. Depth-Bounded Search Trees9. Dynamic Programming10. Tree Decompositions of Graphs11. Further Advanced Techniques12. Summary and Concluding RemarksPart III: Some Theory, Some Case Studies13. Parameterized Complexity Theory14. Connections to Approximation Algorithms15. Selected Case Studies16. ZukunftsmusikReferencesIndex