Linear Ordering Problem (LOP) has receive significant attention in different areas of application, ranging from transportation and scheduling to economics and even archeology and mathematical psychology. It is classified as a NP-hard problem. Assume a complete weighted directed graph on V n , |V n |= n. A permutation of the elements of this finite set of vertices is a linear order. Now let p be a given fixed integer number, 0 ≤ p ≤ n. The p-Fixed Cardinality Linear Ordering Problem (FCLOP) is looking for a subset of vertices containing p nodes and a linear order on the nodes in S. Graphically, there exists exactly one directed arc between every pair of vertices in an LOP feasible solution, which is also a complete cycle-free digraph and the objective is to maximize the sum of the weights of all the arcs in a feasible solution. In the FCLOP, we are looking for a subset S ⊆ V n such that |S|= p and an LOP on these S nodes. Hence the objective is to find the best subset of the nodes and an LOP over these p nodes that maximize the sum of the weights of all the arcs in the solution. Graphically, a feasible solution of the FCLOP is a complete cycle-free digraph on S plus a set of n - p vertices that are not connected to any of the other vertices. There are several studies available in the literature focused on polyhedral aspects of the linear ordering problem as well as various exact and heuristic solution methods. The fixed cardinality linear ordering problem is presented for the first time in this PhD study, so as far as we know, there is no other study in the literature that has studied this problem. The linear ordering problem is already known as a NP-hard problem. However one sees that there exist many instances in the literature that can be solved by CPLEX in less than 10 seconds (when p = n), but once the cardinality number is limited to p (p

Symposium held Jan. 22-24, 1990, San Francisco, Calif.