Polynomial $(2α+\varepsilon)$- and Quadratic $4$-Approximation Algorithms for the Biased Traveling Salesman Problem in Bipartitioned Networks

Abstract

The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is one of the fundamental problems in combinatorial optimization that asks for a minimum-cost Hamiltonian cycle in a complete undirected graph with $N$ vertices. For the metric TSP, where edge costs satisfy the triangle inequality, a long line of work has produced constant-factor approximation algorithms, culminating in the best-known approximation ratio $α<3/2-10^{-36}$. The biased TSP (BTSP) generalizes the metric TSP to bipartitioned networks: the vertex set is partitioned into two subsets, edge costs satisfy the triangle inequality within each subset, while edges crossing the partition may violate it by a certain bias factor. This model captures heterogeneous routing scenarios in which distances are metric only locally but may be distorted across different regions or vertex types. Previously, the only known result for the BTSP was a $7/2$-approximation algorithm with running time $O(N^3)$. In this paper, we present two new approximation algorithms that significantly improve the state of the art. The first achieves an approximation ratio of $2α+\varepsilon$ (strictly less than $3$) in polynomial time $N^{O(1)}$ for any constant $\varepsilon>0$, where the exponent grows at least linearly with $1/\varepsilon$. The second achieves a $4$-approximation in only $O(N^2)$ running time, reducing the previous cubic-time bound by a full polynomial factor. These advances directly support emerging networked systems---including multi-tier 6G architectures and hybrid quantum-classical networks---where cross-region transitions incur biased and non-metric overheads.