256 research outputs found
Tractable Optimization Problems through Hypergraph-Based Structural Restrictions
Several variants of the Constraint Satisfaction Problem have been proposed
and investigated in the literature for modelling those scenarios where
solutions are associated with some given costs. Within these frameworks
computing an optimal solution is an NP-hard problem in general; yet, when
restricted over classes of instances whose constraint interactions can be
modelled via (nearly-)acyclic graphs, this problem is known to be solvable in
polynomial time. In this paper, larger classes of tractable instances are
singled out, by discussing solution approaches based on exploiting hypergraph
acyclicity and, more generally, structural decomposition methods, such as
(hyper)tree decompositions
Algorithms and Complexity Results for Persuasive Argumentation
The study of arguments as abstract entities and their interaction as
introduced by Dung (Artificial Intelligence 177, 1995) has become one of the
most active research branches within Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning. A
main issue for abstract argumentation systems is the selection of acceptable
sets of arguments. Value-based argumentation, as introduced by Bench-Capon (J.
Logic Comput. 13, 2003), extends Dung's framework. It takes into account the
relative strength of arguments with respect to some ranking representing an
audience: an argument is subjectively accepted if it is accepted with respect
to some audience, it is objectively accepted if it is accepted with respect to
all audiences. Deciding whether an argument is subjectively or objectively
accepted, respectively, are computationally intractable problems. In fact, the
problems remain intractable under structural restrictions that render the main
computational problems for non-value-based argumentation systems tractable. In
this paper we identify nontrivial classes of value-based argumentation systems
for which the acceptance problems are polynomial-time tractable. The classes
are defined by means of structural restrictions in terms of the underlying
graphical structure of the value-based system. Furthermore we show that the
acceptance problems are intractable for two classes of value-based systems that
where conjectured to be tractable by Dunne (Artificial Intelligence 171, 2007)
The Logic of Counting Query Answers
We consider the problem of counting the number of answers to a first-order
formula on a finite structure. We present and study an extension of first-order
logic in which algorithms for this counting problem can be naturally and
conveniently expressed, in senses that are made precise and that are motivated
by the wish to understand tractable cases of the counting problem
Provenance Circuits for Trees and Treelike Instances (Extended Version)
Query evaluation in monadic second-order logic (MSO) is tractable on trees
and treelike instances, even though it is hard for arbitrary instances. This
tractability result has been extended to several tasks related to query
evaluation, such as counting query results [3] or performing query evaluation
on probabilistic trees [10]. These are two examples of the more general problem
of computing augmented query output, that is referred to as provenance. This
article presents a provenance framework for trees and treelike instances, by
describing a linear-time construction of a circuit provenance representation
for MSO queries. We show how this provenance can be connected to the usual
definitions of semiring provenance on relational instances [20], even though we
compute it in an unusual way, using tree automata; we do so via intrinsic
definitions of provenance for general semirings, independent of the operational
details of query evaluation. We show applications of this provenance to capture
existing counting and probabilistic results on trees and treelike instances,
and give novel consequences for probability evaluation.Comment: 48 pages. Presented at ICALP'1
SDDs are Exponentially More Succinct than OBDDs
Introduced by Darwiche (2011), sentential decision diagrams (SDDs) are
essentially as tractable as ordered binary decision diagrams (OBDDs), but tend
to be more succinct in practice. This makes SDDs a prominent representation
language, with many applications in artificial intelligence and knowledge
compilation. We prove that SDDs are more succinct than OBDDs also in theory, by
constructing a family of boolean functions where each member has polynomial SDD
size but exponential OBDD size. This exponential separation improves a
quasipolynomial separation recently established by Razgon (2013), and settles
an open problem in knowledge compilation
Evaluating Datalog via Tree Automata and Cycluits
We investigate parameterizations of both database instances and queries that
make query evaluation fixed-parameter tractable in combined complexity. We show
that clique-frontier-guarded Datalog with stratified negation (CFG-Datalog)
enjoys bilinear-time evaluation on structures of bounded treewidth for programs
of bounded rule size. Such programs capture in particular conjunctive queries
with simplicial decompositions of bounded width, guarded negation fragment
queries of bounded CQ-rank, or two-way regular path queries. Our result is
shown by translating to alternating two-way automata, whose semantics is
defined via cyclic provenance circuits (cycluits) that can be tractably
evaluated.Comment: 56 pages, 63 references. Journal version of "Combined Tractability of
Query Evaluation via Tree Automata and Cycluits (Extended Version)" at
arXiv:1612.04203. Up to the stylesheet, page/environment numbering, and
possible minor publisher-induced changes, this is the exact content of the
journal paper that will appear in Theory of Computing Systems. Update wrt
version 1: latest reviewer feedbac
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