3 research outputs found
Symmetries of Symmetry Breaking Constraints
Symmetry is an important feature of many constraint programs. We show that
any symmetry acting on a set of symmetry breaking constraints can be used to
break symmetry. Different symmetries pick out different solutions in each
symmetry class. We use these observations in two methods for eliminating
symmetry from a problem. These methods are designed to have many of the
advantages of symmetry breaking methods that post static symmetry breaking
constraint without some of the disadvantages. In particular, the two methods
prune the search space using fast and efficient propagation of posted
constraints, whilst reducing the conflict between symmetry breaking and
branching heuristics. Experimental results show that the two methods perform
well on some standard benchmarks.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the Ninth International Workshop on
Symmetry and Constraint Satisfaction Problems, held alongside the 15th
International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming
(CP 2009), Lisbon, Portuga