Closing All-Exp Gaps in Local Search for the Traveling Salesman Problem and Maximum Constraint Assignment

Source abstract

We prove the all-exp property for the Traveling Salesman Problem with the $2$-opt neighborhood, and for $(3,2,2)$- and $(2,3,2)$-Maximum Constraint Assignment with the flip neighborhood. The all-exp property states that infinitely many instances have an initial solution from which every sequence of improving moves to a local optimum, and hence every run of local search, has exponential length. For the Traveling Salesman Problem, the all-exp property was previously known for every $k$-opt neighborhood with $k \ge 3$, so our result for $2$-opt completes the picture for all $k$-kopt neighborhoods. In $(p,q,r)$-Maximum Constraint Assignment, each constraint involves at most $p$ variables, each variable occurs in at most $q$ constraints, and each domain has size $r$. Decreasing any of the parameters of $(3,2,2)$ or $(2,3,2)$ yields a problem in which every sequence of improving flips has polynomial length, so both Maximum Constraint Assignment results are tight. All three results settle long-standing open problems. Our proofs build on a common construction idea, which reveals a close connection between the local-search dynamics of the three problems.