Related papers: Approaching $\frac{3}{2}$ for the $s$-$t$-path TSP
Many recent approximation algorithms for different variants of the traveling salesman problem (asymmetric TSP, graph TSP, s-t-path TSP) exploit the well-known fact that a solution of the natural linear programming relaxation can be written…
We give a new, strongly polynomial-time algorithm and improved analysis for the metric $s-t$ path TSP. It finds a tour of cost less than 1.53 times the optimum of the subtour elimination LP, while known examples show that 1.5 is a lower…
We develop faster approximation algorithms for Metric-TSP building on recent, nearly linear time approximation schemes for the LP relaxation [Chekuri and Quanrud, 2017]. We show that the LP solution can be sparsified via cut-sparsification…
We give a polynomial time, $(1+\epsilon)$-approximation algorithm for the traveling repairman problem (TRP) in the Euclidean plane and on weighted trees. This improves on the known quasi-polynomial time approximation schemes for these…
Among various variants of the traveling salesman problem, the s-t-path graph TSP has the special feature that we know the exact integrality ratio, 3/2, and an approximation algorithm matching this ratio. In this paper, we go below this…
Prize-Collecting TSP is a variant of the traveling salesperson problem where one may drop vertices from the tour at the cost of vertex-dependent penalties. The quality of a solution is then measured by adding the length of the tour and the…
We present a deterministic (1+sqrt(5))/2-approximation algorithm for the s-t path TSP for an arbitrary metric. Given a symmetric metric cost on n vertices including two prespecified endpoints, the problem is to find a shortest Hamiltonian…
We study the metric $s$-$t$ path Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). [An, Kleinberg, and Shmoys, STOC 2012] improved on the long standing $\frac{5}{3}$-approximation factor and presented an algorithm that achieves an approximation factor of…
We consider the $s$-$t$-path TSP: given a finite metric space with two elements $s$ and $t$, we look for a path from $s$ to $t$ that contains all the elements and has minimum total distance. We improve the approximation ratio for this…
The paper revisits the robust $s$-$t$ path problem, one of the most fundamental problems in robust optimization. In the problem, we are given a directed graph with $n$ vertices and $k$ distinct cost functions (scenarios) defined over edges,…
We devise a polynomial-time approximation scheme for the classical geometric problem of finding an approximate short path amid weighted regions. In this problem, a triangulated region P comprising of n vertices, a positive weight associated…
We prove the approximation ratio 8/5 for the metric $\{s,t\}$-path-TSP problem, and more generally for shortest connected $T$-joins. The algorithm that achieves this ratio is the simple "Best of Many" version of Christofides' algorithm…
We present a new $(\frac32+\frac1{\mathrm{e}})$-approximation algorithm for the Ordered Traveling Salesperson Problem (Ordered TSP). Ordered TSP is a variant of the classical metric Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) where a specified…
In the Many-visits Path TSP, we are given a set of $n$ cities along with their pairwise distances (or cost) $c(uv)$, and moreover each city $v$ comes with an associated positive integer request $r(v)$. The goal is to find a minimum-cost…
Recent papers on approximation algorithms for the traveling salesman problem (TSP) have given a new variant on the well-known Christofides' algorithm for the TSP, called the Best-of-Many Christofides' algorithm. The algorithm involves…
We design a new LP-based algorithm for the graphic $s$-$t$ path Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), which achieves the best approximation factor of 1.5. The algorithm is based on the idea of narrow cuts due to An, Kleinberg, and Shmoys. It…
We show that for some $\epsilon > 10^{-36}$ and any metric TSP instance, the max entropy algorithm returns a solution of expected cost at most $\frac{3}{2}-\epsilon$ times the cost of the optimal solution to the subtour elimination LP. This…
We study the structure of solutions to linear programming formulations for the traveling salesperson problem (TSP). We perform a detailed analysis of the support of the subtour elimination linear programming relaxation, which leads to…
The (1,2)-TSP is a special case of the TSP where each edge has cost either 1 or 2. In this paper we give a lower bound of $\frac{3}{2}$ for the approximation ratio of the 2-Opt algorithm for the (1,2)-TSP. Moreover, we show that the 3-Opt…
We prove new results for approximating the graphic TSP and some related problems. We obtain polynomial-time algorithms with improved approximation guarantees. For the graphic TSP itself, we improve the approximation ratio to 7/5. For a…