We consider the problem of designing sublinear time algorithms for estimating the cost of minimum] metric traveling salesman (TSP) tour. Specifically, given access to a n × n distance matrix D that specifies pairwise distances between n points, the goal is to estimate the TSP cost by performing only sublinear (in the size of D) queries. For the closely related problem of estimating the weight of
a metric minimum spanning tree (MST), it is known that for any epsilon > 0, there exists an O^~(n/epsilon^O(1))-time algorithm that returns a (1+epsilon)-approximate estimate of the MST cost. This result immediately
implies an O^~(n/epsilon^O(1)) time algorithm to estimate the TSP cost to within a (2 + epsilon) factor for any
epsilon > 0. However, no o(n^2)-time algorithms are known to approximate metric TSP to a factor that is
strictly better than 2. On the other hand, there were also no known barriers that rule out existence of (1 + epsilon)-approximate estimation algorithms for metric TSP with O^~ (n) time for any fixed epsilon > 0. In this paper, we make progress on both algorithms and lower bounds for estimating metric TSP cost.
On the algorithmic side, we first consider the graphic TSP problem where the metric D corresponds to shortest path distances in a connected unweighted undirected graph. We show that there exists an O^~(n) time algorithm that estimates the cost of graphic TSP to within a factor of (2 − epsilon_0) for some epsilon_0 > 0. This is the first sublinear cost estimation algorithm for graphic TSP that
achieves an approximation factor less than 2. We also consider another well-studied special case of metric TSP, namely, (1, 2)-TSP where all distances are either 1 or 2, and give an O^~(n ^ 1.5) time algorithm to estimate optimal cost to within a factor of 1.625. Our estimation algorithms for graphic
TSP as well as for (1, 2)-TSP naturally lend themselves to O^~(n) space streaming algorithms that give an 11/6-approximation for graphic TSP and a 1.625-approximation for (1, 2)-TSP. These results
motivate the natural question if analogously to metric MST, for any epsilon > 0, (1 + epsilon)-approximate
estimates can be obtained for graphic TSP and (1, 2)-TSP using O^~ (n) queries. We answer this
question in the negative – there exists an epsilon_0 > 0, such that any algorithm that estimates the cost of
graphic TSP ((1, 2)-TSP) to within a (1 + epsilon_0)-factor, necessarily requires
(n^2) queries. This lower bound result highlights a sharp separation between the metric MST and metric TSP problems. Similarly to many classical approximation algorithms for TSP, our sublinear time estimation algorithms utilize subroutines for estimating the size of a maximum matching in the underlying
graph. We show that this is not merely an artifact of our approach,
and that for any epsilon > 0, any
algorithm that estimates the cost of graphic TSP or (1, 2)-TSP to within a (1 + epsilon)-factor, can also
be used to estimate the size of a maximum matching in a bipartite graph to within an epsilon n additive
error. This connection allows us to translate known lower bounds for matching size estimation in
various models to similar lower bounds for metric TSP cost estimation.
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On the matrix Monge–Kantorovich problem
The classical Monge–Kantorovich (MK) problem as originally posed is concerned with how best to move a pile of soil or rubble to an excavation or fill with the least amount of work relative to some cost function. When the cost is given by the square of the Euclidean distance, one can define a metric on densities called the Wasserstein distance . In this note, we formulate a natural matrix counterpart of the MK problem for positive-definite density matrices. We prove a number of results about this metric including showing that it can be formulated as a convex optimisation problem, strong duality, an analogue of the Poincaré–Wirtinger inequality and a Lax–Hopf–Oleinik–type result.
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10114190
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- European Journal of Applied Mathematics
- ISSN:
- 0956-7925
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 27
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956792519000172
