Negative boolean constraints

AbstractSystems of Boolean constraints which allow negative constraints such as f ⊊︀ g are investigated. The results form a basis for algorithms to determine satisfiability, validity, implication, equivalence and variable elimination for such systems. These algorithms have applications in spatial query decomposition, machine reasoning and constraint logic programming. Proofs of the results rely on independence of inequations, which enables results for systems with a single inequation to be lifted to systems with many inequations

On Algorithms and Complexity for Sets with Cardinality Constraints

Typestate systems ensure many desirable properties of imperative programs, including initialization of object fields and correct use of stateful library interfaces. Abstract sets with cardinality constraints naturally generalize typestate properties: relationships between the typestates of objects can be expressed as subset and disjointness relations on sets, and elements of sets can be represented as sets of cardinality one. Motivated by these applications, this paper presents new algorithms and new complexity results for constraints on sets and their cardinalities. We study several classes of constraints and demonstrate a trade-off between their expressive power and their complexity. Our first result concerns a quantifier-free fragment of Boolean Algebra with Presburger Arithmetic. We give a nondeterministic polynomial-time algorithm for reducing the satisfiability of sets with symbolic cardinalities to constraints on constant cardinalities, and give a polynomial-space algorithm for the resulting problem. In a quest for more efficient fragments, we identify several subclasses of sets with cardinality constraints whose satisfiability is NP-hard. Finally, we identify a class of constraints that has polynomial-time satisfiability and entailment problems and can serve as a foundation for efficient program analysis.Comment: 20 pages. 12 figure

Quantifier-Free Boolean Algebra with Presburger Arithmetic is NP-Complete

Boolean Algebra with Presburger Arithmetic (BAPA) combines1) Boolean algebras of sets of uninterpreted elements (BA)and 2) Presburger arithmetic operations (PA). BAPA canexpress the relationship between integer variables andcardinalities of unbounded finite sets and can be used toexpress verification conditions in verification of datastructure consistency properties.In this report I consider the Quantifier-Free fragment ofBoolean Algebra with Presburger Arithmetic (QFBAPA).Previous algorithms for QFBAPA had non-deterministicexponential time complexity. In this report I show thatQFBAPA is in NP, and is therefore NP-complete. My resultyields an algorithm for checking satisfiability of QFBAPAformulas by converting them to polynomially sized formulasof quantifier-free Presburger arithmetic. I expect thisalgorithm to substantially extend the range of QFBAPAproblems whose satisfiability can be checked in practice

Decidability and Complexity of Tree Share Formulas

Fractional share models are used to reason about how multiple actors share ownership of resources. We examine the decidability and complexity of reasoning over the "tree share" model of Dockins et al. using first-order logic, or fragments thereof. We pinpoint a connection between the basic operations on trees union, intersection, and complement and countable atomless Boolean algebras, allowing us to obtain decidability with the precise complexity of both first-order and existential theories over the tree share model with the aforementioned operations. We establish a connection between the multiplication operation on trees and the theory of word equations, allowing us to derive the decidability of its existential theory and the undecidability of its full first-order theory. We prove that the full first-order theory over the model with both the Boolean operations and the restricted multiplication operation (with constants on the right hand side) is decidable via an embedding to tree-automatic structures