{"paper":{"title":"Beating the integrality ratio for s-t-tours in graphs","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["cs.DS","math.CO"],"primary_cat":"cs.DM","authors_text":"Jens Vygen, Vera Traub","submitted_at":"2018-04-09T17:18:39Z","abstract_excerpt":"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 Seb\\H{o} 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 c"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"1804.03112","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}