branchandboundprosess
branchandboundprosess, often written as the branch-and-bound process, is a family of exact algorithms used to solve discrete optimization problems, especially those with integer variables. It systematically explores a search tree and uses bounds to prune branches that cannot contain an optimal solution. It is widely used in operations research and computer science for problems such as knapsack, traveling salesman, scheduling, and network design.
The method starts with a root node representing the original problem. Each node corresponds to a subproblem
Relaxations, such as linear programming relaxations or other convex relaxations, are commonly used to compute tight
Applications include vehicle routing, personnel scheduling, facility location, production planning, and various graph and set-partitioning problems.