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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ciacco, Alessia, Pugliese, Luigi Di Puglia, Guerriero, Francesca
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.23290
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author Ciacco, Alessia
Pugliese, Luigi Di Puglia
Guerriero, Francesca
author_facet Ciacco, Alessia
Pugliese, Luigi Di Puglia
Guerriero, Francesca
contents The Traveling Salesman Problem is a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem widely studied in operations research. Despite its simple formulation, it remains computationally challenging due to the exponential growth of the search space and the large number of constraints required to eliminate subtours. This paper introduces a preprocessing strategy that significantly reduces the size of the optimization model by restricting the set of candidate arcs and retaining only the lowest-cost neighbors for each vertex. Computational experiments on TSPLIB benchmark instances demonstrate that the proposed approach substantially reduces the number of decision variables. The method is evaluated using both classical and quantum optimization techniques, showing improvements in computational time and reductions in optimality gaps. Overall, the results indicate that the proposed preprocessing enhances the scalability of the formulations and makes them more suitable for both classical solvers and emerging quantum optimization frameworks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_23290
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Traveling Salesman Problem with a preprocessing method for classical and quantum optimization
Ciacco, Alessia
Pugliese, Luigi Di Puglia
Guerriero, Francesca
Quantum Physics
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
Combinatorics
The Traveling Salesman Problem is a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem widely studied in operations research. Despite its simple formulation, it remains computationally challenging due to the exponential growth of the search space and the large number of constraints required to eliminate subtours. This paper introduces a preprocessing strategy that significantly reduces the size of the optimization model by restricting the set of candidate arcs and retaining only the lowest-cost neighbors for each vertex. Computational experiments on TSPLIB benchmark instances demonstrate that the proposed approach substantially reduces the number of decision variables. The method is evaluated using both classical and quantum optimization techniques, showing improvements in computational time and reductions in optimality gaps. Overall, the results indicate that the proposed preprocessing enhances the scalability of the formulations and makes them more suitable for both classical solvers and emerging quantum optimization frameworks.
title Traveling Salesman Problem with a preprocessing method for classical and quantum optimization
topic Quantum Physics
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
Combinatorics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.23290