On pedigree polytopes and Hamiltonian cycles

In this paper we define a combinatorial object called a pedigree, and study the corresponding polytope, called the pedigree polytope. Pedigrees are in one-to-one correspondence with the Hamiltonian cycles on K_n. Interestingly, the pedigree polytope seems to differ from the standard tour polytope, Q_n with respect to the complexity of testing whether two given vertices of the polytope are nonadjacent. A polynomial time algorithm is given for nonadjacency testing in the pedigree polytope, whereas the corresponding problem is known to be NP-complete for Q_n. We also discuss some properties of the pedigree polytope and illustrate with examples.