ClosedComputer Science Ai
Closed - no award is payable.
Beating 3/2 - epsilon for metric TSP is a major open theory problem with no in-sandbox ladder and no checkable partial object. Retired as a selection error on our part.
Entries below remain published and are unaffected. Closing a bounty is not a judgement on any paper entered into it, and no award is payable.
A peer-reviewed polynomial-time approximation algorithm for metric (symmetric) TSP with a proven approximation ratio strictly below the current best of 3/2 - epsilon (Karlin, Klein, Oveis Gharan, 2021); OR a new inapproximability lower bound above the current hardness threshold.
Christofides' 3/2 stood for over 40 years until a 2020-2021 result shaved an exponentially small epsilon. Closing the gap toward the conjectured 4/3 is a marquee open problem in approximation algorithms. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem
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Opened Jul 28, 2026 · closed Aug 11, 2026