One area of mathematics which has come to the fore in recent years is that of combinatorics. The intense interest has been fuelled in large part by the increasing importance of computers, the needs of computer science and the demands from applications where discrete models play more and more important roles. In addition, many classical branches of mathematics have now come to recognize that combinatorial structures are essential components of many mathematical theories. Leading experts in all areas of combinatorics have contributed to this book. The "Handbook of Combinatorics" provides the working mathematician and computer scientist with an overview of basic methods and paradigms. The book also covers important results and discusses current trends and issues across the whole spectrum of combinatorics. It is hoped that even specialists in the field will benefit from reading this handbook by learning a leading expert's coherent and individual view of the topic.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Structures: graphs - basic graph theory - paths and circuits, J.A. Bondy, connectivity and network flows, A. Frank, matchings and extensions, W.R. Pulleyblank, colouring, stable sets and perfect graphs, B. Toft, embeddings and minors, C. Thomassen, random graphs, M. Karonski; finite sets and relations - hypergraphs, P. Duchet, partially ordered sets, W.T. Trotter; matroids - matroids - fundamental concepts, D.J.A. Welsh, matroid minors, P.D. Seymour, matroid optimization and algorithms, R.E. Bixby and W.H. Cunningham; symmetric structures - permutation groups, P.J. Cameron, finite geometries, P.J. Cameron, block designs, A.E. Brouwer, association schemes, A.E. Brouwer and W. Haemers, codes, J.H. van Lint; combinatorial structures in geometry and number theory - extremal problems in combinatorial geometry, P. Erdos and G. Purdy, convex polytopes and related complexes, V. Klee and P. Kleinschmidt, point lattices, J.C. Lagarias, combinatorial number theory, C. Pomerance and A. Sarkozy. Part 2 Aspects: algebraic enumeration, I.M. Gessel and R.P. Stanley; asymptotic enumeration methods, A.M. Odlyzko; extremal graph theory, B. Bollobas; extremal set systems, P. Frankl; Ramsey theory, J. Nesetril; discrepancy theory, J. Beck and V.T. Sos; automorphism groups, isomorphism, reconstruction, L. Babai; optimization, M. Grotschel and L. Lovasz; computational complexity, D.B. Shmoys and E. Tardos. Part 3 Methods: polyhedral combinatorics, A. Schrijver; tools from linear algebra, C.D. Godsil; tools from higher algebra, N. Alon; probabilistic methods, J. Spencer; topological methods, A. Bjorner. Part 4 Applications: combinatorics in operations research, A. Kolen and J.K. Lenstra; combinatorics in electrical engineering and statics, A. Recski; combinatorics in statistical mechanics, C.D. Godsil et al; combinatorics in chemistry, D.H. Rouvray; applications of combinatorics to molecular biology, M.S. Waterman; combinatorics in computer science, L. Lovasz et al; combinatorics in pure mathematics, L. Lovasz et al. Part 5 Horizons: infinite combinatorics, A. Hajnal; combinatorial games, R.K. Guy; the history of combinatorics, N.L. Biggs et al.