linear assignment

Commonly, when speaking of the assignment problem without any additional qualification, then the linear assignment problem is meant.

In combinatorial optimization, a field within mathematics, the linear bottleneck assignment problem (LBAP) is similar to the linear assignment problem.

The Hungarian algorithm is one of many algorithms that have been devised that solve the linear assignment problem within time bounded by a polynomial expression of the number of agents.

(Update: Since this article was published, I have learned that the problem that the researchers were trying to solve is most likely the linear assignment problem, which, in the terms used below, falls into the easy category.

It is related to the quadratic assignment problem in the same way as the linear bottleneck assignment problem is related to the linear assignment problem, the "sum" is replaced with "max" in the objective function.