TITLE: How to find the optimal mapping between two sets?
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Given two sets $A$ and $B$, both of $n$ points $p \in \mathbb{R}^3$. I want to find a bijective function $f:A \rightarrow B$ so that the cost $C$ is minimal. It's defined as the sum of all pair's euclidean distances.
$$C =\sum_{p \in A}{|p - f(p)|}$$
Can this be calculated directly? If not, what is the most efficient way to find it? Please provide the formula or algorithm.

REPLY [7 votes]: Such a thing is called a minimum weight perfect matching for a bipartite graph.  There is a polynomial time $O(n^3)$ algorithm for this with an interesting history stretching back to Jacobi, often called the Hungarian method.  Some lecture notes give background in Section 1.2.

REPLY [6 votes]: This is called a "transportation problem", which is a special case of a network flow problem.  Efficient algorithms are well-known.  The linear programming formulation uses variables $x_{ij} \in [0,1]$ for $i \in A$, $j \in B$.
minimize $\sum_{i,j} |i-j| x_{ij}$ subject to $\sum_i x_{ij} =1$, $\sum_j x_{ij} = 1$, $0 \le x_{ij} \le 1$.