  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.
