14,379 research outputs found
A Logical Approach to Efficient Max-SAT solving
Weighted Max-SAT is the optimization version of SAT and many important
problems can be naturally encoded as such. Solving weighted Max-SAT is an
important problem from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. In
recent years, there has been considerable interest in finding efficient solving
techniques. Most of this work focus on the computation of good quality lower
bounds to be used within a branch and bound DPLL-like algorithm. Most often,
these lower bounds are described in a procedural way. Because of that, it is
difficult to realize the {\em logic} that is behind.
In this paper we introduce an original framework for Max-SAT that stresses
the parallelism with classical SAT. Then, we extend the two basic SAT solving
techniques: {\em search} and {\em inference}. We show that many algorithmic
{\em tricks} used in state-of-the-art Max-SAT solvers are easily expressable in
{\em logic} terms with our framework in a unified manner.
Besides, we introduce an original search algorithm that performs a restricted
amount of {\em weighted resolution} at each visited node. We empirically
compare our algorithm with a variety of solving alternatives on several
benchmarks. Our experiments, which constitute to the best of our knowledge the
most comprehensive Max-sat evaluation ever reported, show that our algorithm is
generally orders of magnitude faster than any competitor
Deciding Quantifier-Free Presburger Formulas Using Parameterized Solution Bounds
Given a formula in quantifier-free Presburger arithmetic, if it has a
satisfying solution, there is one whose size, measured in bits, is polynomially
bounded in the size of the formula. In this paper, we consider a special class
of quantifier-free Presburger formulas in which most linear constraints are
difference (separation) constraints, and the non-difference constraints are
sparse. This class has been observed to commonly occur in software
verification. We derive a new solution bound in terms of parameters
characterizing the sparseness of linear constraints and the number of
non-difference constraints, in addition to traditional measures of formula
size. In particular, we show that the number of bits needed per integer
variable is linear in the number of non-difference constraints and logarithmic
in the number and size of non-zero coefficients in them, but is otherwise
independent of the total number of linear constraints in the formula. The
derived bound can be used in a decision procedure based on instantiating
integer variables over a finite domain and translating the input
quantifier-free Presburger formula to an equi-satisfiable Boolean formula,
which is then checked using a Boolean satisfiability solver. In addition to our
main theoretical result, we discuss several optimizations for deriving tighter
bounds in practice. Empirical evidence indicates that our decision procedure
can greatly outperform other decision procedures.Comment: 26 page
Approximation Limits of Linear Programs (Beyond Hierarchies)
We develop a framework for approximation limits of polynomial-size linear
programs from lower bounds on the nonnegative ranks of suitably defined
matrices. This framework yields unconditional impossibility results that are
applicable to any linear program as opposed to only programs generated by
hierarchies. Using our framework, we prove that O(n^{1/2-eps})-approximations
for CLIQUE require linear programs of size 2^{n^\Omega(eps)}. (This lower bound
applies to linear programs using a certain encoding of CLIQUE as a linear
optimization problem.) Moreover, we establish a similar result for
approximations of semidefinite programs by linear programs. Our main ingredient
is a quantitative improvement of Razborov's rectangle corruption lemma for the
high error regime, which gives strong lower bounds on the nonnegative rank of
certain perturbations of the unique disjointness matrix.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figure
From the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm to a Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz
The next few years will be exciting as prototype universal quantum processors
emerge, enabling implementation of a wider variety of algorithms. Of particular
interest are quantum heuristics, which require experimentation on quantum
hardware for their evaluation, and which have the potential to significantly
expand the breadth of quantum computing applications. A leading candidate is
Farhi et al.'s Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm, which alternates
between applying a cost-function-based Hamiltonian and a mixing Hamiltonian.
Here, we extend this framework to allow alternation between more general
families of operators. The essence of this extension, the Quantum Alternating
Operator Ansatz, is the consideration of general parametrized families of
unitaries rather than only those corresponding to the time-evolution under a
fixed local Hamiltonian for a time specified by the parameter. This ansatz
supports the representation of a larger, and potentially more useful, set of
states than the original formulation, with potential long-term impact on a
broad array of application areas. For cases that call for mixing only within a
desired subspace, refocusing on unitaries rather than Hamiltonians enables more
efficiently implementable mixers than was possible in the original framework.
Such mixers are particularly useful for optimization problems with hard
constraints that must always be satisfied, defining a feasible subspace, and
soft constraints whose violation we wish to minimize. More efficient
implementation enables earlier experimental exploration of an alternating
operator approach to a wide variety of approximate optimization, exact
optimization, and sampling problems. Here, we introduce the Quantum Alternating
Operator Ansatz, lay out design criteria for mixing operators, detail mappings
for eight problems, and provide brief descriptions of mappings for diverse
problems.Comment: 51 pages, 2 figures. Revised to match journal pape
Phase Transition in Matched Formulas and a Heuristic for Biclique Satisfiability
A matched formula is a CNF formula whose incidence graph admits a matching
which matches a distinct variable to every clause. We study phase transition in
a context of matched formulas and their generalization of biclique satisfiable
formulas. We have performed experiments to find a phase transition of property
"being matched" with respect to the ratio where is the number of
clauses and is the number of variables of the input formula . We
compare the results of experiments to a theoretical lower bound which was shown
by Franco and Gelder (2003). Any matched formula is satisfiable, moreover, it
remains satisfiable even if we change polarities of any literal occurrences.
Szeider (2005) generalized matched formulas into two classes having the same
property -- var-satisfiable and biclique satisfiable formulas. A formula is
biclique satisfiable if its incidence graph admits covering by pairwise
disjoint bounded bicliques. Recognizing if a formula is biclique satisfiable is
NP-complete. In this paper we describe a heuristic algorithm for recognizing
whether a formula is biclique satisfiable and we evaluate it by experiments on
random formulas. We also describe an encoding of the problem of checking
whether a formula is biclique satisfiable into SAT and we use it to evaluate
the performance of our heuristicComment: Conference version submitted to SOFSEM 2018
(https://beda.dcs.fmph.uniba.sk/sofsem2019/) 18 pages(17 without refernces),
3 figures, 8 tables, an algorithm pseudocod
Optimization Modulo Theories with Linear Rational Costs
In the contexts of automated reasoning (AR) and formal verification (FV),
important decision problems are effectively encoded into Satisfiability Modulo
Theories (SMT). In the last decade efficient SMT solvers have been developed
for several theories of practical interest (e.g., linear arithmetic, arrays,
bit-vectors). Surprisingly, little work has been done to extend SMT to deal
with optimization problems; in particular, we are not aware of any previous
work on SMT solvers able to produce solutions which minimize cost functions
over arithmetical variables. This is unfortunate, since some problems of
interest require this functionality.
In the work described in this paper we start filling this gap. We present and
discuss two general procedures for leveraging SMT to handle the minimization of
linear rational cost functions, combining SMT with standard minimization
techniques. We have implemented the procedures within the MathSAT SMT solver.
Due to the absence of competitors in the AR, FV and SMT domains, we have
experimentally evaluated our implementation against state-of-the-art tools for
the domain of linear generalized disjunctive programming (LGDP), which is
closest in spirit to our domain, on sets of problems which have been previously
proposed as benchmarks for the latter tools. The results show that our tool is
very competitive with, and often outperforms, these tools on these problems,
clearly demonstrating the potential of the approach.Comment: Submitted on january 2014 to ACM Transactions on Computational Logic,
currently under revision. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1202.140
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