Vangelis Th. Paschos is Exceptional Professor of Computer Science and Combinatorial Optimization at the University Paris-Dauphine and chairman of the LAMSADE (Laboratory for the Modeling and the Analysis of Decision Aiding Systems). His research interests include the complexity theory, the theory of the polynomial approximation of NP-hard problems, the probabilistic combinatorial optimization, the on-line computation and the exact solution of NP-hard problems. He is the author of more than a hundred and fifty research papers. He is also member of the editorial board of several international scientific journals.

• Preface xviiVangelis Th. PASCHOSPART I. PARADIGMATIC PROBLEMS 1Chapter 1. Optimal Satisfiability 3Cristina BAZGANChapter 2. Scheduling Problems 33Philippe CHRÉTIENNE and Christophe PICOULEAUChapter 3. Location Problems 61Aristotelis GIANNAKOSChapter 4. MiniMax Algorithms and Games 89Michel KOSKASChapter 5. Two-dimensional Bin Packing Problems 107Andrea LODI, Silvano MARTELLO, Michele MONACI and Daniele VIGOChapter 6. The Maximum Cut Problem 131Walid BEN-AMEUR, Ali Ridha MAHJOUB and José NETOChapter 7. The Traveling Salesman Problem and its Variations 173Jérôme MONNOT and Sophie TOULOUSEChapter 8. 0–1 Knapsack Problems 215Gérard PLATEAU and Anass NAGIHChapter 9. Integer Quadratic Knapsack Problems 243Dominique QUADRI, Eric SOUTIF and Pierre TOLLAChapter 10. Graph Coloring Problems 265Dominique DE WERRA and Daniel KOBLERPART II. NEW APPROACHES 311Chapter 11. Polynomial Approximation 313Marc DEMANGE and Vangelis Th. PASCHOSChapter 12. Approximation Preserving Reductions 351Giorgio AUSIELLO and Vangelis Th. PASCHOSChapter 13. Inapproximability of Combinatorial Optimization Problems 381Luca TREVISANChapter 14. Local Search: Complexity and Approximation 435Eric ANGEL, Petros CHRISTOPOULOS and Vassilis ZISSIMOPOULOSChapter 15. On-line Algorithms 473Giorgio AUSIELLO and Luca BECCHETTIChapter 16. Polynomial Approximation for Multicriteria Combinatorial Optimization Problems 511Eric ANGEL, Evripidis BAMPIS and Laurent GOURVÈSChapter 17. An Introduction to Inverse Combinatorial Problems 547Marc DEMANGE and Jérôme MONNOTChapter 18. Probabilistic Combinatorial Optimization 587Cécile MURAT and Vangelis Th. PASCHOSChapter 19. Robust Shortest Path Problems 615Virginie GABREL and Cécile MURATChapter 20. Algorithmic Games 641Aristotelis GIANNAKOS and Vangelis PASCHOSList of Authors 675Index 681Summary of Other Volumes in the Series 689

"Finally, the essay is useful for researchers and scientists in diverse fields (mathematics, programmers, engineers, etc.) as well as post-graduate students (and even undergraduates)." (Contemporary Physics, 19 August 2011)