On the complexity of the multiple stack TSP, kSTSP

Abstract: The multiple Stack Travelling Salesman Problem, STSP, deals with the collect and the deliverance of n commodities in two distinct cities. The two cities are represented by means of two edge-valued graphs (G1,d2) and (G2,d2). During the pick-up tour, the commodities are stored into a container whose rows are subject to LIFO constraints. As a generalisation of standard TSP, the problem obviously is NP-hard; nevertheless, one could wonder about what combinatorial structure of STSP does the most impact its complexity: the arrangement of the commodities into the container, or the tours themselves? The answer is not clear. First, given a pair (T1,T2) of pick-up and delivery tours, it is polynomial to decide whether these tours are or not compatible. Second, for a given arrangement of the commodities into the k rows of the container, the optimum pick-up and delivery tours w.r.t. this arrangement can be computed within a time that is polynomial in n, but exponential in k. Finally, we provide instances on which a tour that is optimum for one of three distances d1, d2 or d1+d2 lead to solutions of STSP that are arbitrarily far to the optimum STSP.