arXiv Machine Learning

Recurrent State Encoders for Efficient Neural Combinatorial Optimization

arXiv Machine Learning
23h ago

MiLoop: Selective Memory Propagation for Neural Combinatorial Optimization

MiLoop is a reinforcement‑learning‑based constructive framework for neural combinatorial optimization that propagates selective memory across rollout steps. By fusing current embeddings with historical memory before attention layers and applying adaptive gated updates afterward, it enables a shallow policy to learn dynamic embeddings without external solution labels or search‑space pruning. Experiments on four combinatorial optimization problems show MiLoop consistently generates high‑quality solutions for instances ranging from 100 to 10 million nodes, demonstrating strong generalization.

By Changliang Zhou, Yuanyao Chen, Rongsheng Chen, Zhiyun Lin, Zhenkun Wang
arXiv AI
Aug 25

Memory-Enhanced Neural Solvers for Routing Problems

The paper introduces MEMENTO, a memory‑enhanced neural solver that improves routing problem solutions by using online data from repeated attempts to adjust action distributions during inference. It targets NP‑hard routing tasks such as the Traveling Salesman and Capacitated Vehicle Routing problems, outperforming existing tree‑search and policy‑gradient fine‑tuning methods. MEMENTO demonstrates strong scalability and data efficiency, achieving state‑of‑the‑art results on 11 of 12 evaluated tasks and enabling zero‑shot integration with diversity‑based solvers.

By Felix Chalumeau, Refiloe Shabe, Noah De Nicola, Arnu Pretorius, Thomas D. Barrett, Nathan Grinsztajn
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 14

Temporal Recurrence Favors Fewer Layers

The paper investigates how temporal recurrence affects the required depth of neural networks in streaming tasks. By treating depth, expert width, and parallel experts as a compute‑allocation problem, the authors compare recurrent and non‑recurrent models across various compute budgets. Experiments on Sokoban and FineWeb language modeling show that recurrence shifts the optimal compute allocation toward fewer layers while maintaining or improving performance.

By Ivan Anokhin, Johan Obando-Ceron, Irina Rish, Sebastian Risi
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 2

Learning-Augmented Scalable Linear Assignment Problem Optimization via Neural Dual Warm-Starts

arXiv:2605. 09382v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: The Linear Assignment Problem is a fundamental combinatorial optimization task where classical exact solvers ensure optimality but suffer from an $\mathcal{O}(N^{3})$ bottleneck, while recent neural approximations struggle with scalability and exactness.

By Ilay Yavlovich, Jad Agbaria, Muhamed Mhamed, Nir Weinberger, Jose Yallouz
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 5

Beyond Solving: Prescriptive Probing for Neural Routing Solvers

arXiv:2602. 07216v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Neural combinatorial optimization (NCO) trains fast heuristics for routing problems, but planners often need more than a single solve: they ask which stop to drop, which transition to preserve, or which subset of stops to remove if a route is infeasible.

By Reuben Narad, L\'eonard Boussioux, Michael Wagner
arXiv AI
Jul 7

Graph Neural Networks are Heuristics

arXiv:2601. 13465v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Graph neural networks are usually treated as auxiliaries for combinatorial optimization: they imitate algorithms, guide search, or supply scores to classical procedures.

By Yimeng Min, Carla P. Gomes