On vertex adjacencies in the polytope of pyramidal tours with step-backs

We consider the traveling salesperson problem in a directed graph. The pyramidal tours with step-backs are a special class of Hamiltonian cycles for which the traveling salesperson problem is solved by dynamic programming in polynomial time. The polytope of pyramidal tours with step-backs $PSB (n)$ is defined as the convex hull of the characteristic vectors of all possible pyramidal tours with step-backs in a complete directed graph. The skeleton of $PSB (n)$ is the graph whose vertex set is the vertex set of $PSB (n)$ and the edge set is the set of geometric edges or one-dimensional faces of $PSB (n)$. The main result of the paper is a necessary and sufficient condition for vertex adjacencies in the skeleton of the polytope $PSB (n)$ that can be verified in polynomial time.Comment: in Englis

A reconstruction of the initial conditions of the Universe by optimal mass transportation

Reconstructing the density fluctuations in the early Universe that evolved into the distribution of galaxies we see today is a challenge of modern cosmology [ref.]. An accurate reconstruction would allow us to test cosmological models by simulating the evolution starting from the reconstructed state and comparing it to the observations. Several reconstruction techniques have been proposed [8 refs.], but they all suffer from lack of uniqueness because the velocities of galaxies are usually not known. Here we show that reconstruction can be reduced to a well-determined problem of optimisation, and present a specific algorithm that provides excellent agreement when tested against data from N-body simulations. By applying our algorithm to the new redshift surveys now under way [ref.], we will be able to recover reliably the properties of the primeval fluctuation field of the local Universe and to determine accurately the peculiar velocities (deviations from the Hubble expansion) and the true positions of many more galaxies than is feasible by any other method. A version of the paper with higher-quality figures is available at http://www.obs-nice.fr/etc7/nature.pdfComment: Latex, 4 pages, 3 figure

An Adaptive Search for the Response Time Variability Problem

The Response Time Variability Problem (RTVP) is an NP-hard combinatorial scheduling problem, which has recently been reported and formalised in the literature. This problem has a wide range of real-world applications in mixed-model assembly lines, multi-threaded computer systems, broadcast of commercial videotapes and others. The RTVP arises whenever products, clients or jobs need to be sequenced in such a way that the variability in the time between the points at which they receive the necessary resources is minimised. We propose a greedy but adaptive heuristic that avoids being trapped into a poor solution by incorporating a look ahead strategy suitable for this particular scheduling problem. The proposed heuristic outperforms the best existing methods, while being much faster and easier to understand and to implement

Goodness-of-fit Criteria for the Adams and Jefferson Rounding Methods and their Limiting Laws

Apportionment method, q-Stationary multiplier method, Rounding error analysis, Sainte–Laguë divergence, Convergence in distribution, Gaussian limit law,