2 research outputs found
Optimization hardness as transient chaos in an analog approach to constraint satisfaction
Boolean satisfiability [1] (k-SAT) is one of the most studied optimization
problems, as an efficient (that is, polynomial-time) solution to k-SAT (for
) implies efficient solutions to a large number of hard optimization
problems [2,3]. Here we propose a mapping of k-SAT into a deterministic
continuous-time dynamical system with a unique correspondence between its
attractors and the k-SAT solution clusters. We show that beyond a constraint
density threshold, the analog trajectories become transiently chaotic [4-7],
and the boundaries between the basins of attraction [8] of the solution
clusters become fractal [7-9], signaling the appearance of optimization
hardness [10]. Analytical arguments and simulations indicate that the system
always finds solutions for satisfiable formulae even in the frozen regimes of
random 3-SAT [11] and of locked occupation problems [12] (considered among the
hardest algorithmic benchmarks); a property partly due to the system's
hyperbolic [4,13] character. The system finds solutions in polynomial
continuous-time, however, at the expense of exponential fluctuations in its
energy function.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure