1,613 research outputs found
Taming a non-convex landscape with dynamical long-range order: memcomputing Ising benchmarks
Recent work on quantum annealing has emphasized the role of collective
behavior in solving optimization problems. By enabling transitions of clusters
of variables, such solvers are able to navigate their state space and locate
solutions more efficiently despite having only local connections between
elements. However, collective behavior is not exclusive to quantum annealers,
and classical solvers that display collective dynamics should also possess an
advantage in navigating a non-convex landscape. Here, we give evidence that a
benchmark derived from quantum annealing studies is solvable in polynomial time
using digital memcomputing machines, which utilize a collection of dynamical
components with memory to represent the structure of the underlying
optimization problem. To illustrate the role of memory and clarify the
structure of these solvers we propose a simple model of these machines that
demonstrates the emergence of long-range order. This model, when applied to
finding the ground state of the Ising frustrated-loop benchmarks, undergoes a
transient phase of avalanches which can span the entire lattice and
demonstrates a connection between long-range behavior and their probability of
success. These results establish the advantages of computational approaches
based on collective dynamics of continuous dynamical systems
Ordered Navigation on Multi-attributed Data Words
We study temporal logics and automata on multi-attributed data words.
Recently, BD-LTL was introduced as a temporal logic on data words extending LTL
by navigation along positions of single data values. As allowing for navigation
wrt. tuples of data values renders the logic undecidable, we introduce ND-LTL,
an extension of BD-LTL by a restricted form of tuple-navigation. While complete
ND-LTL is still undecidable, the two natural fragments allowing for either
future or past navigation along data values are shown to be Ackermann-hard, yet
decidability is obtained by reduction to nested multi-counter systems. To this
end, we introduce and study nested variants of data automata as an intermediate
model simplifying the constructions. To complement these results we show that
imposing the same restrictions on BD-LTL yields two 2ExpSpace-complete
fragments while satisfiability for the full logic is known to be as hard as
reachability in Petri nets
An Atypical Survey of Typical-Case Heuristic Algorithms
Heuristic approaches often do so well that they seem to pretty much always
give the right answer. How close can heuristic algorithms get to always giving
the right answer, without inducing seismic complexity-theoretic consequences?
This article first discusses how a series of results by Berman, Buhrman,
Hartmanis, Homer, Longpr\'{e}, Ogiwara, Sch\"{o}ening, and Watanabe, from the
early 1970s through the early 1990s, explicitly or implicitly limited how well
heuristic algorithms can do on NP-hard problems. In particular, many desirable
levels of heuristic success cannot be obtained unless severe, highly unlikely
complexity class collapses occur. Second, we survey work initiated by Goldreich
and Wigderson, who showed how under plausible assumptions deterministic
heuristics for randomized computation can achieve a very high frequency of
correctness. Finally, we consider formal ways in which theory can help explain
the effectiveness of heuristics that solve NP-hard problems in practice.Comment: This article is currently scheduled to appear in the December 2012
issue of SIGACT New
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