Exact Phase Transitions of Model RB with Slower-Growing Domains

The second moment method has always been an effective tool to lower bound the satisfiability threshold of many random constraint satisfaction problems. However, the calculation is usually hard to carry out and as a result, only some loose results can be obtained. In this paper, based on a delicate analysis which fully exploit the power of the second moment method, we prove that random RB instances can exhibit exact phase transition under more relaxed conditions, especially slower-growing domain size. These results are the best by using the second moment method, and new tools should be introduced for any better results

Phase Transitions in Knowledge Compilation: an Experimental Study

Phase transitions in many complex combinational problems have been widely studied in the past decade. In this paper, we investigate phase transitions in the knowledge compilation empirically, where DFA, OBDD and d-DNNF are chosen as the target languages to compile random k-SAT instances. We perform intensive experiments to analyze the sizes of compilation results and draw the following conclusions: there exists an easy-hard-easy pattern in compilations; the peak point of sizes in the pattern is only related to the ratio of the number of clauses to that of variables when k is fixed, regardless of target languages; most sizes of compilation results increase exponentially with the number of variables growing, but there also exists a phase transition that separates a polynomial-increment region from the exponential-increment region; Moreover, we explain why the phase transition in compilations occurs by analyzing microstructures of DFAs, and conclude that a kind of solution interchangeability with more than 2 variables has a sharp transition near the peak point of the easy-hard-easy pattern, and thus it has a great impact on sizes of DFAs