18 research outputs found
More on Descriptive Complexity of Second-Order HORN Logics
This paper concerns Gradel's question asked in 1992: whether all problems
which are in PTIME and closed under substructures are definable in second-order
HORN logic SO-HORN. We introduce revisions of SO-HORN and DATALOG by adding
first-order universal quantifiers over the second-order atoms in the bodies of
HORN clauses and DATALOG rules. We show that both logics are as expressive as
FO(LFP), the least fixed point logic. We also prove that FO(LFP) can not define
all of the problems that are in PTIME and closed under substructures. As a
corollary, we answer Gradel's question negatively
Definability of linear equation systems over groups and rings
Motivated by the quest for a logic for PTIME and recent insights that the
descriptive complexity of problems from linear algebra is a crucial aspect of
this problem, we study the solvability of linear equation systems over finite
groups and rings from the viewpoint of logical (inter-)definability. All
problems that we consider are decidable in polynomial time, but not expressible
in fixed-point logic with counting. They also provide natural candidates for a
separation of polynomial time from rank logics, which extend fixed-point logics
by operators for determining the rank of definable matrices and which are
sufficient for solvability problems over fields. Based on the structure theory
of finite rings, we establish logical reductions among various solvability
problems. Our results indicate that all solvability problems for linear
equation systems that separate fixed-point logic with counting from PTIME can
be reduced to solvability over commutative rings. Moreover, we prove closure
properties for classes of queries that reduce to solvability over rings, which
provides normal forms for logics extended with solvability operators. We
conclude by studying the extent to which fixed-point logic with counting can
express problems in linear algebra over finite commutative rings, generalising
known results on the logical definability of linear-algebraic problems over
finite fields
The power of Sherali-Adams relaxations for general-valued CSPs
We give a precise algebraic characterisation of the power of Sherali-Adams
relaxations for solvability of valued constraint satisfaction problems to
optimality. The condition is that of bounded width which has already been shown
to capture the power of local consistency methods for decision CSPs and the
power of semidefinite programming for robust approximation of CSPs.
Our characterisation has several algorithmic and complexity consequences. On
the algorithmic side, we show that several novel and many known valued
constraint languages are tractable via the third level of the Sherali-Adams
relaxation. For the known languages, this is a significantly simpler algorithm
than the previously obtained ones. On the complexity side, we obtain a
dichotomy theorem for valued constraint languages that can express an injective
unary function. This implies a simple proof of the dichotomy theorem for
conservative valued constraint languages established by Kolmogorov and Zivny
[JACM'13], and also a dichotomy theorem for the exact solvability of
Minimum-Solution problems. These are generalisations of Minimum-Ones problems
to arbitrary finite domains. Our result improves on several previous
classifications by Khanna et al. [SICOMP'00], Jonsson et al. [SICOMP'08], and
Uppman [ICALP'13].Comment: Full version of an ICALP'15 paper (arXiv:1502.05301
Recommended from our members
Solving linear programs without breaking abstractions
We show that the ellipsoid method for solving linear programs can be implemented in a way that respects the symmetry of the program being solved. That is to say, there is an algorithmic implementation of the method that does not distinguish, or make choices, between variables or constraints in the program unless they are distinguished by properties definable from the program. In particular, we demonstrate that the solvability of linear programs can be expressed in fixed-point logic with counting (FPC) as long as the program is given by a separation oracle that is itself definable in FPC. We use this to show that the size of a maximum matching in a graph is definable in FPC. This settles an open problem first posed by Blass, Gurevich and Shelah [Blass et al. 1999]. On the way to defining a suitable separation oracle for the maximum matching program, we provide FPC formulas defining canonical maximum flows and minimum cuts in undirected capacitated graphs.Research supported by EPSRC grant EP/H026835.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ACM via http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/282289
Quantum and non-signalling graph isomorphisms
We introduce the (G,H)-isomorphism game, a new two-player non-local game that classical players can win with certainty iff the graphs G and H are isomorphic. We then define quantum and non-signalling isomorphisms by considering perfect quantum and non-signalling strategies for this game. We prove that non-signalling isomorphism coincides with fractional isomorphism, giving the latter an operational interpretation. We show that quantum isomorphism is equivalent to the feasibility of two polynomial systems obtained by relaxing standard integer programs for graph isomorphism to Hermitian variables. Finally, we provide a reduction from linear binary constraint system games to isomorphism games. This reduction provides examples of quantum isomorphic graphs that are not isomorphic, implies that the tensor product and commuting operator frameworks result in different notions of quantum isomorphism, and proves that both relations are undecidable.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Fractional homomorphism, Weisfeiler-Leman invariance, and the Sherali-Adams hierarchy for the Constraint Satisfaction Problem
Given a pair of graphs and , the problems of
deciding whether there exists either a homomorphism or an isomorphism from
to have received a lot of attention. While graph
homomorphism is known to be NP-complete, the complexity of the graph
isomorphism problem is not fully understood. A well-known combinatorial
heuristic for graph isomorphism is the Weisfeiler-Leman test together with its
higher order variants. On the other hand, both problems can be reformulated as
integer programs and various LP methods can be applied to obtain high-quality
relaxations that can still be solved efficiently. We study so-called fractional
relaxations of these programs in the more general context where
and are not graphs but arbitrary relational structures. We give a
combinatorial characterization of the Sherali-Adams hierarchy applied to the
homomorphism problem in terms of fractional isomorphism. Collaterally, we also
extend a number of known results from graph theory to give a characterization
of the notion of fractional isomorphism for relational structures in terms of
the Weisfeiler-Leman test, equitable partitions, and counting homomorphisms
from trees. As a result, we obtain a description of the families of CSPs that
are closed under Weisfeiler-Leman invariance in terms of their polymorphisms as
well as decidability by the first level of the Sherali-Adams hierarchy.Comment: Full version of a MFCS'21 pape