Solving Large Traveling Salesman Problems: The Last Gasp

1992年4月，由AT&Amp；T Bell实验室的David Applegate、莱斯大学的Robert Bixby、罗格斯大学的Vasek Chvtal和Bellcore的William Cook组成的团队从一个名为TSPLib的标准测试数据库中解决了10个以前未解决的问题，规模从1,060到3,038个城市，创造了一项新的世界纪录。(特别是，3038个城市的问题是有史以来解决的最大的TSPLib实例。)撰写新算法的说明的任务是压倒性的：该程序由四个人在四年的时间里开发，大约有5万行代码，这还不包括实现单纯形法的部分。该奖项是为了让Chvtal能够在1993年春季学期辞去他在罗格斯大学的教职，以便在与位于新泽西州默里山的AT&amp；T Bell实验室和位于新泽西州莫里斯敦的Bellcore的同事不断协商的情况下，全职致力于写作。

In April 1992, a team consisting of David Applegate of AT&T Bell Laboratories, Robert Bixby of Rice University, Vasek Chvatal of Rutgers University, and William Cook of Bellcore established a new world record by solving ten previously unsolved problems, with sizes ranging from 1,060 to 3,038 cities, from a standard library of test data called TSPLib. (In particular, the 3,038-city problem is the largest TSPLib instance ever solved.) The task of writing up an exposition of the new algorithm is overwhelming: the program, developed by four people in the course of four years has some 50 thousand lines not counting the part that implements the simplex method. The award is so that Chvatal can buy himself out of his teaching duties at Rutgers for the Spring term of 1993 in order to dedicate himself full-time to writing in constant consultations with his colleagues at AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hills, NJ and Bellcore in Morristown, NJ.