Related papers: A historical note on the 3/2-approximation algorit…
We consider a memory allocation problem that can be modeled as a version of bin packing where items may be split, but each bin may contain at most two (parts of) items. A 3/2-approximation algorithm and an NP-hardness proof for this problem…
We give a probabilistic analysis of the unit-demand Euclidean capacitated vehicle routing problem in the random setting, where the input distribution consists of $n$ unit-demand customers modeled as independent, identically distributed…
We propose a new approach for solving combinatorial optimization problem by utilizing the mechanism of chases and escapes, which has a long history in mathematics. In addition to the well-used steepest descent and neighboring search, we…
The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is the most popular and most studied combinatorial problem, starting with von Neumann in 1951. It has driven the discovery of several optimization techniques such as cutting planes, branch-and-bound,…
We develop an asymptotic approximation and bounds for the traveling salesman problem with time slots, i.e. when the time windows of points to visit are a partition of a given time horizon. Although this problem is relevant in several…
We design a $1.49993$-approximation algorithm for the metric traveling salesperson problem (TSP) for instances in which an optimal solution to the subtour linear programming relaxation is half-integral. These instances received significant…
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…
This article proposes the first known algorithm that achieves a constant-factor approximation of the minimum length tour for a Dubins' vehicle through $n$ points on the plane. By Dubins' vehicle, we mean a vehicle constrained to move at…
We design a 3/2 approximation algorithm for the Generalized Steiner Tree problem (GST) in metrics with distances 1 and 2. This is the first polynomial time approximation algorithm for a wide class of non-geometric metric GST instances with…
Combinatorial optimization is widely applied in a number of areas nowadays. Unfortunately, many combinatorial optimization problems are NP-hard which usually means that they are unsolvable in practice. However, it is often unnecessary to…
In multi-criteria optimization problems, several objective functions have to be optimized. Since the different objective functions are usually in conflict with each other, one cannot consider only one particular solution as the optimal…
We show that there is a polynomial-time algorithm with approximation guarantee $\frac{3}{2}+\epsilon$ for the $s$-$t$-path TSP, for any fixed $\epsilon>0$. It is well known that Wolsey's analysis of Christofides' algorithm also works for…
The traveling salesman (or salesperson) problem, short TSP, is a problem of strong interest to many researchers from mathematics, economics, and computer science. Manifold TSP variants occur in nearly every scientific field and application…
We propose a learning algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem based on a simple strategy of trial and adaptation: i) A tour is selected by choosing cities probabilistically according to the ``synaptic'' strengths between…
We study the unit-demand capacitated vehicle routing problem in the random setting of the Euclidean plane. The objective is to visit $n$ random terminals in a square using a set of tours of minimum total length, such that each tour visits…
Hougardy and Schroeder (WG 2014) proposed a combinatorial technique for pruning the search space in the traveling salesman problem, establishing that, for a given instance, certain edges cannot be present in any optimal tour. We describe an…
One of the most studied extensions of the famous Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) is the {\sc Multiple TSP}: a set of $m\geq 1$ salespersons collectively traverses a set of $n$ cities by $m$ non-trivial tours, to minimize the total…
We propose a new genetic algorithm with optimal recombination for the asymmetric instances of travelling salesman problem. The algorithm incorporates several new features that contribute to its effectiveness: (i) Optimal recombination…
We show that the average cost for the traveling-salesman problem in two dimensions, which is the archetypal problem in combinatorial optimization, in the bipartite case, is simply related to the average cost of the assignment problem with…
Combinatorial optimization is the field devoted to the study and practice of algorithms that solve NP-hard problems. As Machine Learning (ML) and deep learning have popularized, several research groups have started to use ML to solve…