6,751 research outputs found
An Analysis of Arithmetic Constraints on Integer Intervals
Arithmetic constraints on integer intervals are supported in many constraint
programming systems. We study here a number of approaches to implement
constraint propagation for these constraints. To describe them we introduce
integer interval arithmetic. Each approach is explained using appropriate proof
rules that reduce the variable domains. We compare these approaches using a set
of benchmarks. For the most promising approach we provide results that
characterize the effect of constraint propagation. This is a full version of
our earlier paper, cs.PL/0403016.Comment: 44 pages, to appear in 'Constraints' journa
Certainty Closure: Reliable Constraint Reasoning with Incomplete or Erroneous Data
Constraint Programming (CP) has proved an effective paradigm to model and
solve difficult combinatorial satisfaction and optimisation problems from
disparate domains. Many such problems arising from the commercial world are
permeated by data uncertainty. Existing CP approaches that accommodate
uncertainty are less suited to uncertainty arising due to incomplete and
erroneous data, because they do not build reliable models and solutions
guaranteed to address the user's genuine problem as she perceives it. Other
fields such as reliable computation offer combinations of models and associated
methods to handle these types of uncertain data, but lack an expressive
framework characterising the resolution methodology independently of the model.
We present a unifying framework that extends the CP formalism in both model
and solutions, to tackle ill-defined combinatorial problems with incomplete or
erroneous data. The certainty closure framework brings together modelling and
solving methodologies from different fields into the CP paradigm to provide
reliable and efficient approches for uncertain constraint problems. We
demonstrate the applicability of the framework on a case study in network
diagnosis. We define resolution forms that give generic templates, and their
associated operational semantics, to derive practical solution methods for
reliable solutions.Comment: Revised versio
Formal Proofs for Nonlinear Optimization
We present a formally verified global optimization framework. Given a
semialgebraic or transcendental function and a compact semialgebraic domain
, we use the nonlinear maxplus template approximation algorithm to provide a
certified lower bound of over . This method allows to bound in a modular
way some of the constituents of by suprema of quadratic forms with a well
chosen curvature. Thus, we reduce the initial goal to a hierarchy of
semialgebraic optimization problems, solved by sums of squares relaxations. Our
implementation tool interleaves semialgebraic approximations with sums of
squares witnesses to form certificates. It is interfaced with Coq and thus
benefits from the trusted arithmetic available inside the proof assistant. This
feature is used to produce, from the certificates, both valid underestimators
and lower bounds for each approximated constituent. The application range for
such a tool is widespread; for instance Hales' proof of Kepler's conjecture
yields thousands of multivariate transcendental inequalities. We illustrate the
performance of our formal framework on some of these inequalities as well as on
examples from the global optimization literature.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, 3 table
Timed pushdown automata revisited
This paper contains two results on timed extensions of pushdown automata
(PDA). As our first result we prove that the model of dense-timed PDA of
Abdulla et al. collapses: it is expressively equivalent to dense-timed PDA with
timeless stack. Motivated by this result, we advocate the framework of
first-order definable PDA, a specialization of PDA in sets with atoms, as the
right setting to define and investigate timed extensions of PDA. The general
model obtained in this way is Turing complete. As our second result we prove
NEXPTIME upper complexity bound for the non-emptiness problem for an expressive
subclass. As a byproduct, we obtain a tight EXPTIME complexity bound for a more
restrictive subclass of PDA with timeless stack, thus subsuming the complexity
bound known for dense-timed PDA.Comment: full technical report of LICS'15 pape
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