Local Search Algorithms for Combinatorial Problems: Analysis, Improvments, and New Applications

Many problems of enormous practical and theoretical importance are of combinatorial nature. Combinatorial problems are intriguing because they are easy to state but many of them are very difficult to solve they are NP-hard. Local search and extensions thereof based on metaheuristics, which have been developed at the interface between Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research, are among the best available techniques for obtaining high-quality solutions to large instances of NP-hard pro...