Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

A Constant-factor Approximation Algorithm for the Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem

We give a constant-factor approximation algorithm for the asymmetric traveling salesman problem. Our approximation guarantee is analyzed with respect to the standard LP relaxation, and thus our result confirms the conjectured constant integrality gap of that relaxation.Our techniques build upon the constant-factor approximation algorithm for the special case of node-weighted metrics. Specifically, we give a generic reduction to structured instances that resemble but are more general than those arising from node-weighted metrics. For those instances, we then solve Local-Connectivity ATSP, a problem known to be equivalent (in terms of constant-factor approximation) to the asymmetric traveling salesman problem.This lecture aims to give a more detailed explanation of our approach.This is joint work with Jakub Tarnawski and László Végh.

Date & Time

January 23, 2018 | 10:30am – 12:30pm

Location

S-101

Speakers

Ola Svensson

Affiliation

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne