Order statistics and the linear assignment problem (Q1098186)

Under mild conditions on the distribution function F, we analyze the asymptotic behavior in expectation of the smallest order statistic, both for the case that F is defined on \((-\infty,+\infty)\) and for the case that F is defined on (0,\(\infty)\). These results yield asymptotic estimates of the expected optimal value of the linear assignment problem under the assumption that the cost coefficients are independent random variables with distribution function F.