Branch and bound (BB or B&B) is a general algorithm for finding optimal solutions of various optimization problems, especially in discrete and combinatorial optimization. A branch-and-bound algorithm consists of a systematic enumeration of all candidate solutions, where large subsets of fruitless candidates are discarded en masse, by using upper and lower estimated bounds of the quantity being optimized.
The method was first proposed by A. H. Land and A. G. Doig in 1960 for discrete programming.
Read more about Branch And Bound: General Description, Applications
Famous quotes containing the words branch and/or bound:
“That man’s the true Conservative
Who lops the mouldered branch away.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Without being bound to the fulfillment of promises, we would never be able to keep our identities; we would be condemned to wander helplessly and without direction in the darkness of each man’s lonely heart, caught in its contradictions and equivocalities—a darkness which only the light shed over the public realm through the presence of others, who confirm the identity between the one who promises and the one who fulfills, can dispel.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)