1,039 research outputs found
On-line algorithms for polynomially solvable satisfiability problems
AbstractGiven a propositional Horn formula, we show how to maintain on-line information about its satisfiability during the insertion of new clauses. A data structure is presented which answers each satisfiability question in O(1) time and inserts a new clause of length q in O(q) amortized time. This significantly outperforms previously known solutions of the same problem. This result is extended also to a particular class of non-Horn formulae already considered in the literature, for which the space bound is improved. Other operations are considered, such as testing whether a given hypothesis is consistent with a satisfying interpretation of the given formula and determining a truth assignment which satisfies a given formula. The on-line time and space complexity of these operations is also analyzed
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
Hiding solutions in random satisfiability problems: A statistical mechanics approach
A major problem in evaluating stochastic local search algorithms for
NP-complete problems is the need for a systematic generation of hard test
instances having previously known properties of the optimal solutions. On the
basis of statistical mechanics results, we propose random generators of hard
and satisfiable instances for the 3-satisfiability problem (3SAT). The design
of the hardest problem instances is based on the existence of a first order
ferromagnetic phase transition and the glassy nature of excited states. The
analytical predictions are corroborated by numerical results obtained from
complete as well as stochastic local algorithms.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, revised version to app. in PR
Computational Complexity for Physicists
These lecture notes are an informal introduction to the theory of
computational complexity and its links to quantum computing and statistical
mechanics.Comment: references updated, reprint available from
http://itp.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/~mertens/papers/complexity.shtm
Intermediate problems in modular circuits satisfiability
In arXiv:1710.08163 a generalization of Boolean circuits to arbitrary finite
algebras had been introduced and applied to sketch P versus NP-complete
borderline for circuits satisfiability over algebras from congruence modular
varieties. However the problem for nilpotent (which had not been shown to be
NP-hard) but not supernilpotent algebras (which had been shown to be polynomial
time) remained open.
In this paper we provide a broad class of examples, lying in this grey area,
and show that, under the Exponential Time Hypothesis and Strong Exponential
Size Hypothesis (saying that Boolean circuits need exponentially many modular
counting gates to produce boolean conjunctions of any arity), satisfiability
over these algebras have intermediate complexity between and , where measures how much a nilpotent algebra
fails to be supernilpotent. We also sketch how these examples could be used as
paradigms to fill the nilpotent versus supernilpotent gap in general.
Our examples are striking in view of the natural strong connections between
circuits satisfiability and Constraint Satisfaction Problem for which the
dichotomy had been shown by Bulatov and Zhuk
Solution space structure of random constraint satisfaction problems with growing domains
In this paper we study the solution space structure of model RB, a standard
prototype of Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSPs) with growing domains. Using
rigorous the first and the second moment method, we show that in the solvable
phase close to the satisfiability transition, solutions are clustered into
exponential number of well-separated clusters, with each cluster contains
sub-exponential number of solutions. As a consequence, the system has a
clustering (dynamical) transition but no condensation transition. This picture
of phase diagram is different from other classic random CSPs with fixed domain
size, such as random K-Satisfiability (K-SAT) and graph coloring problems,
where condensation transition exists and is distinct from satisfiability
transition. Our result verifies the non-rigorous results obtained using cavity
method from spin glass theory, and sheds light on the structures of solution
spaces of problems with a large number of states.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure
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