We consider the problem of constructing an an optimal-weight tree from the
3*(n choose 4) weighted quartet topologies on n objects, where optimality means
that the summed weight of the embedded quartet topologiesis optimal (so it can
be the case that the optimal tree embeds all quartets as non-optimal
topologies). We present a heuristic for reconstructing the optimal-weight tree,
and a canonical manner to derive the quartet-topology weights from a given
distance matrix. The method repeatedly transforms a bifurcating tree, with all
objects involved as leaves, achieving a monotonic approximation to the exact
single globally optimal tree. This contrasts to other heuristic search methods
from biological phylogeny, like DNAML or quartet puzzling, which, repeatedly,
incrementally construct a solution from a random order of objects, and
subsequently add agreement values.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figure
