150,587 research outputs found
The power of linear programming for general-valued CSPs
Let , called the domain, be a fixed finite set and let , called
the valued constraint language, be a fixed set of functions of the form
, where different functions might have
different arity . We study the valued constraint satisfaction problem
parametrised by , denoted by VCSP. These are minimisation
problems given by variables and the objective function given by a sum of
functions from , each depending on a subset of the variables.
Finite-valued constraint languages contain functions that take on only rational
values and not infinite values.
Our main result is a precise algebraic characterisation of valued constraint
languages whose instances can be solved exactly by the basic linear programming
relaxation (BLP). For a valued constraint language , BLP is a decision
procedure for if and only if admits a symmetric fractional
polymorphism of every arity. For a finite-valued constraint language ,
BLP is a decision procedure if and only if admits a symmetric
fractional polymorphism of some arity, or equivalently, if admits a
symmetric fractional polymorphism of arity 2.
Using these results, we obtain tractability of several novel classes of
problems, including problems over valued constraint languages that are: (1)
submodular on arbitrary lattices; (2) -submodular on arbitrary finite
domains; (3) weakly (and hence strongly) tree-submodular on arbitrary trees.Comment: A full version of a FOCS'12 paper by the last two authors
(arXiv:1204.1079) and an ICALP'13 paper by the first author (arXiv:1207.7213)
to appear in SIAM Journal on Computing (SICOMP
Fermions and Loops on Graphs. II. Monomer-Dimer Model as Series of Determinants
We continue the discussion of the fermion models on graphs that started in
the first paper of the series. Here we introduce a Graphical Gauge Model (GGM)
and show that : (a) it can be stated as an average/sum of a determinant defined
on the graph over (binary) gauge field; (b) it is equivalent
to the Monomer-Dimer (MD) model on the graph; (c) the partition function of the
model allows an explicit expression in terms of a series over disjoint directed
cycles, where each term is a product of local contributions along the cycle and
the determinant of a matrix defined on the remainder of the graph (excluding
the cycle). We also establish a relation between the MD model on the graph and
the determinant series, discussed in the first paper, however, considered using
simple non-Belief-Propagation choice of the gauge. We conclude with a
discussion of possible analytic and algorithmic consequences of these results,
as well as related questions and challenges.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures; misprints correcte
A discriminative view of MRF pre-processing algorithms
While Markov Random Fields (MRFs) are widely used in computer vision, they
present a quite challenging inference problem. MRF inference can be accelerated
by pre-processing techniques like Dead End Elimination (DEE) or QPBO-based
approaches which compute the optimal labeling of a subset of variables. These
techniques are guaranteed to never wrongly label a variable but they often
leave a large number of variables unlabeled. We address this shortcoming by
interpreting pre-processing as a classification problem, which allows us to
trade off false positives (i.e., giving a variable an incorrect label) versus
false negatives (i.e., failing to label a variable). We describe an efficient
discriminative rule that finds optimal solutions for a subset of variables. Our
technique provides both per-instance and worst-case guarantees concerning the
quality of the solution. Empirical studies were conducted over several
benchmark datasets. We obtain a speedup factor of 2 to 12 over expansion moves
without preprocessing, and on difficult non-submodular energy functions produce
slightly lower energy.Comment: ICCV 201
General-relativistic coupling between orbital motion and internal degrees of freedom for inspiraling binary neutron stars
We analyze the coupling between the internal degrees of freedom of neutron
stars in a close binary, and the stars' orbital motion. Our analysis is based
on the method of matched asymptotic expansions and is valid to all orders in
the strength of internal gravity in each star, but is perturbative in the
``tidal expansion parameter'' (stellar radius)/(orbital separation). At first
order in the tidal expansion parameter, we show that the internal structure of
each star is unaffected by its companion, in agreement with post-1-Newtonian
results of Wiseman (gr-qc/9704018). We also show that relativistic interactions
that scale as higher powers of the tidal expansion parameter produce
qualitatively similar effects to their Newtonian counterparts: there are
corrections to the Newtonian tidal distortion of each star, both of which occur
at third order in the tidal expansion parameter, and there are corrections to
the Newtonian decrease in central density of each star (Newtonian ``tidal
stabilization''), both of which are sixth order in the tidal expansion
parameter. There are additional interactions with no Newtonian analogs, but
these do not change the central density of each star up to sixth order in the
tidal expansion parameter. These results, in combination with previous analyses
of Newtonian tidal interactions, indicate that (i) there are no large
general-relativistic crushing forces that could cause the stars to collapse to
black holes prior to the dynamical orbital instability, and (ii) the
conventional wisdom with respect to coalescing binary neutron stars as sources
of gravitational-wave bursts is correct: namely, the finite-stellar-size
corrections to the gravitational waveform will be unimportant for the purpose
of detecting the coalescences.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures. Replaced 13 July: proof corrected, result
unchange
Generalised and Quotient Models for Random And/Or Trees and Application to Satisfiability
This article is motivated by the following satisfiability question: pick
uniformly at random an and/or Boolean expression of length n, built on a set of
k_n Boolean variables. What is the probability that this expression is
satisfiable? asymptotically when n tends to infinity?
The model of random Boolean expressions developed in the present paper is the
model of Boolean Catalan trees, already extensively studied in the literature
for a constant sequence (k_n)_{n\geq 1}. The fundamental breakthrough of this
paper is to generalise the previous results to any (reasonable) sequence of
integers (k_n)_{n\geq 1}, which enables us, in particular, to solve the above
satisfiability question.
We also analyse the effect of introducing a natural equivalence relation on
the set of Boolean expressions. This new "quotient" model happens to exhibit a
very interesting threshold (or saturation) phenomenon at k_n = n/ln n.Comment: Long version of arXiv:1304.561
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