A historical note on the 3/2-approximation algorithm for the metric traveling salesman problem

04/06/2020

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by   René van Bevern, et al.

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One of the most fundamental results in combinatorial optimization is the polynomial-time 3/2-approximation algorithm for the metric traveling salesman problem. It was presented by Christofides in 1976 and is well known as "the Christofides algorithm". Recently, some authors started calling it "Christofides-Serdyukov algorithm", pointing out that the same result was published independently in the USSR in 1978. We provide some historic background on Serdyukov's findings and a translation of his article.