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Approximation algorithms as a research area is closely related to and informed by inapproximability theory where the non-existence of efficient algorithms with certain approximation ratios is proved (conditioned on widely believed hypotheses such as the P ≠ NP conjecture) by means of reductions. In the case of the metric traveling salesman problem, the best known inapproximability result rules out algorithms with an approximation ratio less than 123/122 ≈ 1.008196 unless P = NP, Karpinski, Lampis, Schmied.cite-ref-6[6] Coupled with the knowledge of the existence of Christofides' 1.5 approximation algorithm, this tells us that the threshold of approximability for metric traveling salesman (if it exists) is somewhere between 123/122 and 1.5.

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