On the minimum quartet tree cost problem

Abstract: Given a set of n data objects and their pairwise dissimilarities, the goal of the minimum quartet tree cost (MQTC) problem is to construct an optimal tree from the total number of possible combinations of quartet topologies on n, where optimality means that the sum of the dissimilarities of the embedded (or consistent) quartet topologies is minimal. We provide details and formulation of this novel challenging problem, and the preliminaries of an exact algorithm under current development which may be useful to improve the MQTC heuristics to date into more efficient hybrid approaches.