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A polynomially solvable case of the pooling problem

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Abstract

Answering a question of Haugland, we show that the pooling problem with one pool and a bounded number of inputs can be solved in polynomial time by solving a polynomial number of linear programs of polynomial size. We also give an overview of known complexity results and remaining open problems to further characterize the border between (strongly) NP-hard and polynomially solvable cases of the pooling problem.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the ARC Linkage Grant No. LP110200524, Hunter Valley Coal Chain Coordinator (hvccc.com.au) and Triple Point Technology (tpt.com). We would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments which improved the quality of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Natashia Boland

  2. The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia

    Thomas Kalinowski & Fabian Rigterink

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  1. Natashia Boland
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  2. Thomas Kalinowski
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  3. Fabian Rigterink
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Correspondence to Fabian Rigterink.

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Boland, N., Kalinowski, T. & Rigterink, F. A polynomially solvable case of the pooling problem. J Glob Optim 67, 621–630 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10898-016-0432-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10898-016-0432-6

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