QCSP on partially reflexive forests

We study the (non-uniform) quantified constraint satisfaction problem QCSP(H) as H ranges over partially reflexive forests. We obtain a complexity-theoretic dichotomy: QCSP(H) is either in NL or is NP-hard. The separating condition is related firstly to connectivity, and thereafter to accessibility from all vertices of H to connected reflexive subgraphs. In the case of partially reflexive paths, we give a refinement of our dichotomy: QCSP(H) is either in NL or is Pspace-complete

Quantified Constraints in Twenty Seventeen

I present a survey of recent advances in the algorithmic and computational complexity theory of non-Boolean Quantified Constraint Satisfaction Problems, incorporating some more modern research directions

QCSP on reflexive tournaments

We give a complexity dichotomy for the Quantified Constraint Satisfaction Problem QCSP(H) when H is a reflexive tournament. It is well known that reflexive tournaments can be split into a sequence of strongly connected components H1,…,Hn so that there exists an edge from every vertex of Hi to every vertex of Hj if and only if

QCSP on semicomplete digraphs

We study the (non-uniform) quantified constraint satisfaction problem QCSP(H) as H ranges over semicomplete digraphs. We obtain a complexity-theoretic trichotomy: QCSP(H) is either in P, is NP-complete or is Pspace-complete. The largest part of our work is the algebraic classification of precisely which semicompletes enjoy only essentially unary polymorphisms, which is combinatorially interesting in its own right

From Complexity to Algebra and Back: Digraph Classes, Collapsibility, and the PGP

Inspired by computational complexity results for the quantified constraint satisfaction problem, we study the clones of idem potent polymorphisms of certain digraph classes. Our first results are two algebraic dichotomy, even "gap", theorems. Building on and extending [Martin CP'11], we prove that partially reflexive paths bequeath a set of idem potent polymorphisms whose associated clone algebra has: either the polynomially generated powers property (PGP), or the exponentially generated powers property (EGP). Similarly, we build on [DaMM ICALP'14] to prove that semi complete digraphs have the same property. These gap theorems are further motivated by new evidence that PGP could be the algebraic explanation that a QCSP is in NP even for unbounded alternation. Along the way we also effect a study of a concrete form of PGP known as collapsibility, tying together the algebraic and structural threads from [Chen Sicomp'08], and show that collapsibility is equivalent to its Pi2-restriction. We also give a decision procedure for k-collapsibility from a singleton source of a finite structure (a form of collapsibility which covers all known examples of PGP for finite structures). Finally, we present a new QCSP trichotomy result, for partially reflexive paths with constants. Without constants it is known these QCSPs are either in NL or Pspace-complete [Martin CP'11], but we prove that with constants they attain the three complexities NL, NP-complete and Pspace-complete