Stabilization procedures and applications

Thanks I am grateful to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Gottfried Tinhofer who gave me the chance to work with him at the Zentrum Mathematik at the Technische Universiät München. He introduced me to the field of algorithmic and algebraic graph theory. His suggestions and comments improved this work a lot. I enjoyed the discussions on mathematical subjects as well as the conversations during the daily coffee breaks very much. I thank Prof. Dr. Gritzmann and Dr. Andreas Brieden who spent lots of time to maintain the Graduiertenkolleg " Angewandte Algorithmische Mathematik " in which I was enrolled for the last two years. I thank my former colleagues PD Dr. Luitpold Babel, Dr. Stefan Baumann and Dr. Mariel Lüdecke for a nice and friendly environment especially for an atmosphere lacking of envy and exaggerated ambition. I am grateful to my parents Heera and Horst Bastert and to my parents in law Helga and Herbert Bauer who took care of Fabian several times during the last months. I thank my children Fabian and Laurin. Fabian borrowed me his dinosaur and his hippopotamus to help me finishing my thesis and I thank Laurin for sleeping at night very soon after his birth. I am indebted to my wife Dr. Petra Bauer who carefully read this thesis and provided many suggestions and corrections. Furthermore, she enabled that I could work more than usual during the last months.