DOE OSTI · 2500845
Compressing branch-and-bound trees
Abstract
A branch-and-bound (BB) tree certifies a dual bound on the value of an integer program. In this work, we introduce the tree compression problem (TCP): Given a BB tree T that certifies a dual bound, can we obtain a smaller tree with the same (or stronger) bound by either (1) applying a different disjunction at some node in T or (2) removing leaves from T? Here we believe such post-hoc analysis of BB trees may assist in identifying helpful general disjunctions in BB algorithms. We initiate our study by considering computational complexity and limitations of TCP. We then conduct experiments to evaluate the compressibility of realistic branch-and-bound trees generated by commonly-used branching strategies, using both an exact and a heuristic compression algorithm.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Explore connections, maps & timelines
Muñoz, Gonzalo, Paat, Joseph, Xavier, Álinson S.. 2024-04-06. Compressing branch-and-bound trees. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-024-02080-5
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.