Approximation Algorithms for Fractional Covering and Packing Problems, and Applications

In this talk we present fast algorithms that find approximate solutions for a general class of problems, which are called fractional packing and covering problems. We describe two main lines of research: algorithms by Plotkin, Shmoys and Tardos [7], algorithms by Grigoriadis, Khachiyan, Porkolab and Villavicencio [1,2]. and new developments.