A Conjecture On A Continuous Optimization Model For The Golomb Ruler Problem

A Golomb Ruler (GR) is a set of integer marks along an imaginary ruler such that all the distances of the marks are different. Computing a GR of minimum length is associated to many applications (from astronomy to information theory). Although not yet demonstrated to be NP-hard, the problem is computationally very challenging. This brief note proposes a new continuous optimization model for the problem and, based on a given theoretical result and some computational experiments, we conjecture that an optimal solution of this model is also a solution to an associated GR of minimum length.