Dancing to the State of the Art? - How Candidate Lists Influence LKH for Solving the Traveling Salesperson Problem

Jonathan Heins, Lennart Schäpermeier, Pascal Kerschke, Darrell Whitley

Abstract: Solving the Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) remains a persistent challenge, despite its fundamental role in numerous generalized applications in modern contexts. Heuristic solvers address the demand for finding high-quality solutions efficiently. Among these solvers, the Lin-Kernighan-Helsgaun (LKH) heuristic stands out, as it complements the performance of genetic algorithms across a diverse range of problem instances. However, frequent timeouts on challenging instances hinder the practical applicability of the solver.