A scheduling problem with job values given as a power function of their completion times

This paper deals with a problem of scheduling jobs on the identical parallel machines, where job values are given as a power function of the job completion times. Minimization of the total loss of job values is considered as a criterion. We establish the computational complexity of the problem - strong NP-hardness of its general version and NP-hardness of its single machine case. Moreover, we solve some special cases of the problem in polynomial time. Finally, we construct and experimentally test branch and bound algorithm (along with some elimination properties improving its efficiency) and several heuristic algorithms for the general case of the problem.