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by Someone 4960 days ago
Yes, any algorithm that halves the set of potential solutions in each iteration will work, but I do not see how one can get such an iteration step from "a decider that can answer "is there an answer less than X?". If suspect (but cannot prove or even have reasonably solid arguments) that the "figure out what number excludes half of the remaining solutions" step will be at least as hard as the problem itself.

Now, if I had such an oracle, I would let it loose on all graphs equal to the target graph with one edge removed. I think (but cannot prove (yet?)) that that is a way to prove, for each edge, whether it is by necessity part of the shortest tour. I also supect that, for most graphs, the set of remaining "might be in the shortest tour" will be so small that an exhaustive search will be easy.