This book describes the rapidly developing field of interior point
methods (IPMs). An extensive analysis is given of path-following methods
for linear programming, quadratic programming and convex programming.
These methods, which form a subclass of interior point methods, follow
the central path, which is an analytic curve defined by the problem.
Relatively simple and elegant proofs for polynomiality are given. The
theory is illustrated using several explicit examples. Moreover, an
overview of other classes of IPMs is given. It is shown that all these
methods rely on the same notion as the path-following methods: all these
methods use the central path implicitly or explicitly as a reference
path to go to the optimum.
For specialists in IPMs as well as those seeking an introduction to
IPMs. The book is accessible to any mathematician with basic
mathematical programming knowledge.