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 attention over the last decade due to a conjecture of Schalekamp, Williamson and van Zuylen stating that half-integral LP solutions have the largest integrality gap over all fractional solutions. So, if the conjecture of Schalekamp et al. holds true, our result shows that the integrality gap of the subtour polytope is bounded away from $3/2$.
A long standing conjecture says that the integrality ratio of the subtour LP for metric TSP is $4/3$. A well known family of graphic TSP instances achieves this lower bound asymptotically. For Euclidean TSP the best known lower bound on the integrality ratio was $8/7$. We improve this value by presenting a family of Euclidean TSP instances for which the integrality ratio of the subtour LP converges to 4/3.
In this paper we investigate the integrality ratio of the standard LP relaxation for the metric $s-t$ Path TSP. We make a near-optimal choice for an auxiliary function used in the analysis of Traub and Vygen which leads to an improved upper bound on the integrality ratio of 1.5273.
We give an improved analysis of the best-of-many Christofides algorithm with lonely edge deletion, which was proposed by Sebő and van Zuylen [2016]. This implies an improved upper bound on the integrality ratio of the standard LP relaxation for the $s$-$t$-path TSP.
In this paper we investigate instances with high integrality ratio of the subtour LP. We develop a procedure to generate families of Euclidean TSP instances whose integrality ratios converge to $\frac{4}{3}$ and may have a different structure than the instances currently known from the literature. Moreover, we compute the instances maximizing the integrality ratio for Rectilinear TSP with up to 10 vertices. Based on these instances we give families of instances whose integrality ratio converge to $\frac{4}{3}$ for Rectilinear, Multidimensional Rectilinear and Euclidean TSP that have similar st…
The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a fundamental problem in combinatorial optimization. Several semidefinite programming relaxations have been proposed recently that exploit a variety of mathematical structures including, e.g., algebraic connectivity, permutation matrices, and association schemes. The main results of this paper are twofold. First, de Klerk and Sotirov [9] present an SDP based on permutation matrices and symmetry reduction; they show that it is incomparable to the subtour elimination linear program, but generally dominates it on small instances. We provide a family of \emp…
We prove that even in average case, the Euclidean Traveling Salesman Problem exhibits an integrality gap of $(1+ε)$ for $ε>0$ when the Held-Karp Linear Programming relaxation is augmented by all comb inequalities of bounded size. This implies that large classes of branch-and-cut algorithms take exponential time for the Euclidean TSP, even on random inputs.
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 algorithms that find 2-matchings with few components in polynomial time. The number of components directly leads to integrality gap upper bounds for the TSP with distances one and two, for both undirected and directed graphs. Our main results concern the subtour elimination relaxation with one additional cutting plane inequality: - For undirected instances we obt…
In this paper, we study the integrality gap of the subtour LP relaxation for the traveling salesman problem in the special case when all edge costs are either 1 or 2. For the general case of symmetric costs that obey triangle inequality, a famous conjecture is that the integrality gap is 4/3. Little progress towards resolving this conjecture has been made in thirty years. We conjecture that when all edge costs $c_{ij}\in \{1,2\}$, the integrality gap is $10/9$. We show that this conjecture is true when the optimal subtour LP solution has a certain structure. Under a weaker assumption, which is…
In the maximum traveling salesman problem (Max TSP) we are given a complete undirected graph with nonnegative weights on the edges and we wish to compute a traveling salesman tour of maximum weight. We present a fast combinatorial $\frac 45$ - approximation algorithm for Max TSP. The previous best approximation for this problem was $\frac 79$. The new algorithm is based on a novel technique of eliminating difficult subgraphs via half-edges, a new method of edge coloring and a technique of exchanging edges. A half-edge of edge $e=(u,v)$ is informally speaking "a half of $e$ containing either $u…
After a sequence of improvements Boyd, Sitters, van der Ster, and Stougie proved that any 2-connected graph whose n vertices have degree 3, i.e., a cubic 2-connected graph, has a Hamiltonian tour of length at most (4/3)n, establishing in particular that the integrality gap of the subtour LP is at most 4/3 for cubic 2-connected graphs and matching the conjectured value of the famous 4/3 conjecture. In this paper we improve upon this result by designing an algorithm that finds a tour of length (4/3 - 1/61236)n, implying that cubic 2-connected graphs are among the few interesting classes of graph…
Extending Exact Integrality Gap Computations for the Metric TSP
University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；Research Institute for Discrete Mathematics and Hausdorff Center for Mathematics, University of Bonn（波恩大学离散数学研究所和豪斯多夫数学中心）；Research Institute for Discrete Mathematics, University of Bonn（波恩大学离散数学研究所）
The Asymmetric Traveling Salesperson Path Problem (ATSPP) is one where, given an asymmetric metric space $(V,d)$ with specified vertices s and t, the goal is to find an s-t path of minimum length that passes through all the vertices in V. This problem is closely related to the Asymmetric TSP (ATSP), which seeks to find a tour (instead of an $s-t$ path) visiting all the nodes: for ATSP, a $ρ$-approximation guarantee implies an $O(ρ)$-approximation for ATSPP. However, no such connection is known for the integrality gaps of the linear programming relaxations for these problems: the current-best a…
We study the lift-and-project procedures of Lov{á}sz-Schrijver and Sherali-Adams applied to the standard linear programming relaxation of the traveling salesperson problem with triangle inequality. For the asymmetric TSP tour problem, Charikar, Goemans, and Karloff (FOCS 2004) proved that the integrality gap of the standard relaxation is at least 2. We prove that after one round of the Lov{á}sz-Schrijver or Sherali-Adams procedures, the integrality gap of the asymmetric TSP tour problem is at least 3/2, with a small caveat on which version of the standard relaxation is used. For the symmetric …
We present a framework for approximating the metric TSP based on a novel use of matchings. Traditionally, matchings have been used to add edges in order to make a given graph Eulerian, whereas our approach also allows for the removal of certain edges leading to a decreased cost. For the TSP on graphic metrics (graph-TSP), the approach yields a 1.461-approximation algorithm with respect to the Held-Karp lower bound. For graph-TSP restricted to a class of graphs that contains degree three bounded and claw-free graphs, we show that the integrality gap of the Held-Karp relaxation matches the conje…
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 path between the two endpoints; Hoogeveen showed that the natural variant of Christofides' algorithm is a 5/3-approximation algorithm for this problem, and this asymptotically tight bound in fact has been the best approximation ratio known until now. We modify this algorithm so that it chooses the initial spanning tree based on an optimal solution to the Held…
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 threshold: we devise a polynomial-time algorithm for the s-t-path graph TSP with approximation ratio 1.497. Our algorithm can be viewed as a refinement of the 3/2-approximation algorithm by Sebő and Vygen [2014], but we introduce several completely new techniques. These include a new type of ear-decomposition, an enhanced ear induction that reveals a novel conne…
The well known $4/3$ conjecture states that the integrality ratio of the subtour LP is at most $4/3$ for metric Traveling Salesman instances. We present a family of Euclidean Traveling Salesman instances for which we prove that the integrality ratio of the subtour LP converges to $4/3$. These instances (using the rounded Euclidean norm) turn out to be hard to solve exactly with Concorde, the fastest existing exact TSP solver. For a 200 vertex instance from our family of Euclidean Traveling Salesman instances Concorde needs several days of CPU time. This is more than 1,000,000 times the runtime…
We consider the integrality gap of the subtour LP relaxation of the Traveling Salesman Problem restricted to circulant instances. De Klerk and Dobre conjectured that the value of the optimal solution to the subtour LP on these instances is equal to an entirely combinatorial lower bound from Van der Veen, Van Dal, and Sierksma. We prove this conjecture by giving an explicit optimal solution to the subtour LP. We then use it to show that the integrality gap of the subtour LP is 2 on circulant instances, making such instances one of the few non-trivial classes of TSP instances for which the integ…
We present a fast combinatorial $3/4$-approximation algorithm for the maximum asymmetric TSP with weights zero and one. The approximation factor of this algorithm matches the currently best one given by Bläser in 2004 and based on linear programming. Our algorithm first computes a maximum size matching and a maximum weight cycle cover without certain cycles of length two but possibly with {\em half-edges} - a half-edge of a given edge $e$ is informally speaking a half of $e$ that contains one of the endpoints of $e$. Then from the computed matching and cycle cover it extracts a set of paths, w…
We study the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) on the metric completion of cubic and subcubic graphs, which is known to be NP-hard. The problem is of interest because of its relation to the famous 4/3 conjecture for metric TSP, which says that the integrality gap, i.e., the worst case ratio between the optimal values of the TSP and its linear programming relaxation (the subtour elimination relaxation), is 4/3. We present the first algorithm for cubic graphs with approximation ratio 4/3. The proof uses polyhedral techniques in a surprising way, which is of independent interest. In fact we prove…
The Travelling Salesman Problem is one the most fundamental and most studied problems in approximation algorithms. For more than 30 years, the best algorithm known for general metrics has been Christofides's algorithm with approximation factor of 3/2, even though the so-called Held-Karp LP relaxation of the problem is conjectured to have the integrality gap of only 4/3. Very recently, significant progress has been made for the important special case of graphic metrics, first by Oveis Gharan et al., and then by Momke and Svensson. In this paper, we provide an improved analysis for the approach …
We study the ATSP (Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem), and our focus is on negative results in the framework of the Sherali-Adams (SA) Lift and Project method. Our main result pertains to the standard LP (linear programming) relaxation of ATSP, due to Dantzig, Fulkerson, and Johnson. For any fixed integer $t\geq 0$ and small $ε$, $0<ε\ll{1}$, there exists a digraph $G$ on $ν=ν(t,ε)=O(t/ε)$ vertices such that the integrality ratio for level~$t$ of the SA system starting with the standard LP on $G$ is $\ge 1+\frac{1-ε}{2t+3} \approx \frac43, \frac65, \frac87, \dots$. Thus, in terms of the in…
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 $\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}\approx1.61803$. Later [Sebő, IPCO 2013] further improved the approximation factor to $\frac{8}{5}$. We present a simple, self-contained analysis that unifies both results; our main contribution is a \emph{unified correction vector}. We compare two different linear programming (LP) relaxations of the $s$-$t$ path TSP, namely, the path ver…
We give the first constant-factor approximation for the Directed Latency problem in quasi-polynomial time. Here, the goal is to visit all nodes in an asymmetric metric with a single vehicle starting at a depot $r$ to minimize the average time a node waits to be visited by the vehicle. The approximation guarantee is an improvement over the polynomial-time $O(\log n)$-approximation [Friggstad, Salavatipour, Svitkina, 2013] and no better quasi-polynomial time approximation algorithm was known. To obtain this, we must extend a recent result showing the integrality gap of the Asymmetric TSP-Path LP…
We present a new approach for gluing tours over certain tight, 3-edge cuts. Gluing over 3-edge cuts has been used in algorithms for finding Hamilton cycles in special graph classes and in proving bounds for 2-edge-connected subgraph problem, but not much was known in this direction for gluing connected multigraphs. We apply this approach to the traveling salesman problem (TSP) in the case when the objective function of the subtour elimination relaxation is minimized by a $θ$-cyclic point: $x_e \in \{0,θ, 1-θ, 1\}$, where the support graph is subcubic and each vertex is incident to at least one…
Given an edge weighted graph and a forest $F$, the $\textit{2-edge connectivity augmentation problem}$ is to pick a minimum weighted set of edges, $E'$, such that every connected component of $E'\cup F$ is 2-edge connected. Williamson et al. gave a 2-approximation algorithm (WGMV) for this problem using the primal-dual schema. We show that when edge weights are integral, the WGMV procedure can be modified to obtain a half-integral dual. The 2-edge connectivity augmentation problem has an interesting connection to routing flow in graphs where the union of supply and demand is planar. The half-i…
In the weighted minimum strongly connected spanning subgraph (WMSCSS) problem we must purchase a minimum-cost strongly connected spanning subgraph of a digraph. We show that half-integral linear program (LP) solutions for WMSCSS can be efficiently rounded to integral solutions at a multiplicative $1.5$ cost. This rounding matches a known $1.5$ integrality gap lower bound for a half-integral instance. More generally, we show that LP solutions whose non-zero entries are at least a value $f > 0$ can be rounded at a multiplicative cost of $2 - f$.
We consider a network design problem called the generalized terminal backup problem. Whereas earlier work investigated the edge-connectivity constraints only, we consider both edge- and node-connectivity constraints for this problem. A major contribution of this paper is the development of a strongly polynomial-time 4/3-approximation algorithm for the problem. Specifically, we show that a linear programming relaxation of the problem is half-integral, and that the half-integral optimal solution can be rounded to a 4/3-approximate solution. We also prove that the linear programming relaxation of…
A Group Labeled Graph is a pair $(G,Λ)$ where $G$ is an oriented graph and $Λ$ is a mapping from the arcs of $G$ to elements of a group. A (not necessarily directed) cycle $C$ is called non-null if for any cyclic ordering of the arcs in $C$, the group element obtained by `adding' the labels on forward arcs and `subtracting' the labels on reverse arcs is not the identity element of the group. Non-null cycles in group labeled graphs generalize several well-known graph structures, including odd cycles. In this paper, we prove that non-null cycles on Group Labeled Graphs have the half-integral Erd…
In the recent years we have witnessed a rapid development of new algorithmic techniques for parameterized algorithms for graph separation problems. We present experimental evaluation of two cornerstone theoretical results in this area: linear-time branching algorithms guided by half-integral relaxations and kernelization (preprocessing) routines based on representative sets in matroids. A side contribution is a new set of benchmark instances of (unweighted, vertex-deletion) Multiway Cut.
Given a connected undirected graph $\bar{G}$ on $n$ vertices, and non-negative edge costs $c$, the 2ECM problem is that of finding a $2$-edge~connected spanning multisubgraph of $\bar{G}$ of minimum cost. The natural linear program (LP) for 2ECM, which coincides with the subtour LP for the Traveling Salesman Problem on the metric closure of $\bar{G}$, gives a lower bound on the optimal cost. For instances where this LP is optimized by a half-integral solution $x$, Carr and Ravi (1998) showed that the integrality gap is at most $\frac43$: they show that the vector $\frac43 x$ dominates a convex…
We study the half-integral $k$-Directed Disjoint Paths Problem ($\tfrac12$kDDPP) in highly strongly connected digraphs. The integral kDDPP is NP-complete even when restricted to instances where $k=2$, and the input graph is $L$-strongly connected, for any $L\geq 1$. We show that when the integrality condition is relaxed to allow each vertex to be used in two paths, the problem becomes efficiently solvable in highly connected digraphs (even with $k$ as part of the input). Specifically, we show that there is an absolute constant $c$ such that for each $k\geq 2$ there exists $L(k)$ such that $\tf…
A recent trend in the design of FPT algorithms is exploiting the half-integrality of LP relaxations. In other words, starting with a half-integral optimal solution to an LP relaxation, we assign integral values to variables one-by-one by branch and bound. This technique is general and the resulting time complexity has a low dependency on the parameter. However, the time complexity often becomes a large polynomial in the input size because we need to compute half-integral optimal LP solutions. In this paper, we address this issue by providing an $O(km)$-time algorithm for solving the LPs arisin…
A recent trend in parameterized algorithms is the application of polytope tools (specifically, LP-branching) to FPT algorithms (e.g., Cygan et al., 2011; Narayanaswamy et al., 2012). However, although interesting results have been achieved, the methods require the underlying polytope to have very restrictive properties (half-integrality and persistence), which are known only for few problems (essentially Vertex Cover (Nemhauser and Trotter, 1975) and Node Multiway Cut (Garg et al., 1994)). Taking a slightly different approach, we view half-integrality as a \emph{discrete} relaxation of a probl…
