14,121 research outputs found
Generalized Satisfiability Problems via Operator Assignments
Schaefer introduced a framework for generalized satisfiability problems on
the Boolean domain and characterized the computational complexity of such
problems. We investigate an algebraization of Schaefer's framework in which the
Fourier transform is used to represent constraints by multilinear polynomials
in a unique way. The polynomial representation of constraints gives rise to a
relaxation of the notion of satisfiability in which the values to variables are
linear operators on some Hilbert space. For the case of constraints given by a
system of linear equations over the two-element field, this relaxation has
received considerable attention in the foundations of quantum mechanics, where
such constructions as the Mermin-Peres magic square show that there are systems
that have no solutions in the Boolean domain, but have solutions via operator
assignments on some finite-dimensional Hilbert space. We obtain a complete
characterization of the classes of Boolean relations for which there is a gap
between satisfiability in the Boolean domain and the relaxation of
satisfiability via operator assignments. To establish our main result, we adapt
the notion of primitive-positive definability (pp-definability) to our setting,
a notion that has been used extensively in the study of constraint satisfaction
problems. Here, we show that pp-definability gives rise to gadget reductions
that preserve satisfiability gaps. We also present several additional
applications of this method. In particular and perhaps surprisingly, we show
that the relaxed notion of pp-definability in which the quantified variables
are allowed to range over operator assignments gives no additional expressive
power in defining Boolean relations
Linear and Branching System Metrics
We extend the classical system relations of trace\ud
inclusion, trace equivalence, simulation, and bisimulation to a quantitative setting in which propositions are interpreted not as boolean values, but as elements of arbitrary metric spaces.\ud
\ud
Trace inclusion and equivalence give rise to asymmetrical and symmetrical linear distances, while simulation and bisimulation give rise to asymmetrical and symmetrical branching distances. We study the relationships among these distances, and we provide a full logical characterization of the distances in terms of quantitative versions of LTL and Ī¼-calculus. We show that, while trace inclusion (resp. equivalence) coincides with simulation (resp. bisimulation) for deterministic boolean transition systems, linear\ud
and branching distances do not coincide for deterministic metric transition systems. Finally, we provide algorithms for computing the distances over finite systems, together with a matching lower complexity bound
Appell polynomials and their relatives II. Boolean theory
The Appell-type polynomial family corresponding to the simplest
non-commutative derivative operator turns out to be connected with the Boolean
probability theory, the simplest of the three universal non-commutative
probability theories (the other two being free and tensor/classical
probability). The basic properties of the Boolean Appell polynomials are
described. In particular, their generating function turns out to have a
resolvent-type form, just like the generating function for the free Sheffer
polynomials. It follows that the Meixner (that is, Sheffer plus orthogonal)
polynomial classes, in the Boolean and free theory, coincide. This is true even
in the multivariate case. A number of applications of this fact are described,
to the Belinschi-Nica and Bercovici-Pata maps, conditional freeness, and the
Laha-Lukacs type characterization.
A number of properties which hold for the Meixner class in the free and
classical cases turn out to hold in general in the Boolean theory. Examples
include the behavior of the Jacobi coefficients under convolution, the
relationship between the Jacobi coefficients and cumulants, and an operator
model for cumulants. Along the way, we obtain a multivariate version of the
Stieltjes continued fraction expansion for the moment generating function of an
arbitrary state with monic orthogonal polynomials
Logic Meets Algebra: the Case of Regular Languages
The study of finite automata and regular languages is a privileged meeting
point of algebra and logic. Since the work of Buchi, regular languages have
been classified according to their descriptive complexity, i.e. the type of
logical formalism required to define them. The algebraic point of view on
automata is an essential complement of this classification: by providing
alternative, algebraic characterizations for the classes, it often yields the
only opportunity for the design of algorithms that decide expressibility in
some logical fragment.
We survey the existing results relating the expressibility of regular
languages in logical fragments of MSO[S] with algebraic properties of their
minimal automata. In particular, we show that many of the best known results in
this area share the same underlying mechanics and rely on a very strong
relation between logical substitutions and block-products of pseudovarieties of
monoid. We also explain the impact of these connections on circuit complexity
theory.Comment: 37 page
Lower bounds on the size of semidefinite programming relaxations
We introduce a method for proving lower bounds on the efficacy of
semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations for combinatorial problems. In
particular, we show that the cut, TSP, and stable set polytopes on -vertex
graphs are not the linear image of the feasible region of any SDP (i.e., any
spectrahedron) of dimension less than , for some constant .
This result yields the first super-polynomial lower bounds on the semidefinite
extension complexity of any explicit family of polytopes.
Our results follow from a general technique for proving lower bounds on the
positive semidefinite rank of a matrix. To this end, we establish a close
connection between arbitrary SDPs and those arising from the sum-of-squares SDP
hierarchy. For approximating maximum constraint satisfaction problems, we prove
that SDPs of polynomial-size are equivalent in power to those arising from
degree- sum-of-squares relaxations. This result implies, for instance,
that no family of polynomial-size SDP relaxations can achieve better than a
7/8-approximation for MAX-3-SAT
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