Certifying feasibility and objective value of linear programs

We present an algorithm that certifies the feasibility of a linear program and computes a safe bound on its objective value while using rational arithmetic as little as possible. Our approach relies on computing a feasible solution that is as far as possible from satisfying an inequality at equality. To this end, we have to detect the set of inequalities that can only be satisfied at equality. Compared to previous approaches, our algorithm has a much higher success rate. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.