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Optimization problems with approximation schemes

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1258))

Abstract

In this paper we extend recent work about the relationship between the syntactic description of NP optimization problems and their approximation properties. In contrast to Max SNP we consider problems that take arbitrary weighted structures as input instances and we use the framework of Metafinite Model Theory [5] to get a more general definability theory of optimization problems. We define a class MAX φ and show that every problem in this class has a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS), i.e., can be approximated to every desired accuracy ε in time polynomial in the size of the input and 1/ε. An example for a problem in Max φ is Knapsack.

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Dirk van Dalen Marc Bezem

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Malmström, A. (1997). Optimization problems with approximation schemes. In: van Dalen, D., Bezem, M. (eds) Computer Science Logic. CSL 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1258. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63172-0_47

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63172-0_47

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63172-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69201-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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