Linear Optimization over Permutation Groups

For a permutation group given by a set of generators, the problem of finding "special" group members is NP-hard in many cases. E.g., this is true for the problem of finding a permutation with a minimum number of fixed points or a permutation with a minimal Hamming distance from a given permutation. Many of these problems can be modeled as linear optimization problems over permutation groups. We develop a polyhedral approach to this general problem and derive an exact and practically fast algorithm based on the branch&cut-technique

On the Subgroup Distance Problem

We investigate the computational complexity of finding an element of a permutation group H subset S_n with a minimal distance to a given pi in S_n , for different metrics on S_n . We assume that H is given by a set of generators, such that the problem cannot be solved in polynomial time by exhaustive enumeration. For the case of the Cayley Distance, this problem has been shown to be NP-hard, even if H is abelian of exponent two Pinch, 2006. We present a much simpler proof for this result, which also works for the Hamming Distance, the l\_p distance, Lee's Distance, Kendall's tau, and Ulam's Distance. Moreover, we give an NP-hardness proof for the l\_oo distance using a different reduction idea. Finally, we settle the complexity of the corresponding fixed-parameter and maximization problems