Quantum computing offers the hope of dramatic increases in computational capabilities. That’s the promise of quantum computers that can handle hundreds of thousands or millions of quantum bits or ...

A new approach to solving the ‘Travelling Salesperson Problem’ – one of the most difficult questions in computer science – significantly outperforms current approaches. A notorious theoretical ...

Computers are good at answering questions. What’s the shortest route from my house to Area 51? Is 8,675,309 a prime number? How many teaspoons in a tablespoon? For questions like these, they’ve got ...

An infinitesimal advance in the traveling salesman problem breathes new life into the search for improved approximate solutions. The Quanta Newsletter ...