94,275 research outputs found
Random Constraint Satisfaction Problems
Random instances of constraint satisfaction problems such as k-SAT provide
challenging benchmarks. If there are m constraints over n variables there is
typically a large range of densities r=m/n where solutions are known to exist
with probability close to one due to non-constructive arguments. However, no
algorithms are known to find solutions efficiently with a non-vanishing
probability at even much lower densities. This fact appears to be related to a
phase transition in the set of all solutions. The goal of this extended
abstract is to provide a perspective on this phenomenon, and on the
computational challenge that it poses
Biased landscapes for random Constraint Satisfaction Problems
The typical complexity of Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs) can be
investigated by means of random ensembles of instances. The latter exhibit many
threshold phenomena besides their satisfiability phase transition, in
particular a clustering or dynamic phase transition (related to the tree
reconstruction problem) at which their typical solutions shatter into
disconnected components. In this paper we study the evolution of this
phenomenon under a bias that breaks the uniformity among solutions of one CSP
instance, concentrating on the bicoloring of k-uniform random hypergraphs. We
show that for small k the clustering transition can be delayed in this way to
higher density of constraints, and that this strategy has a positive impact on
the performances of Simulated Annealing algorithms. We characterize the modest
gain that can be expected in the large k limit from the simple implementation
of the biasing idea studied here. This paper contains also a contribution of a
more methodological nature, made of a review and extension of the methods to
determine numerically the discontinuous dynamic transition threshold.Comment: 32 pages, 16 figure
On the cavity method for decimated random constraint satisfaction problems and the analysis of belief propagation guided decimation algorithms
We introduce a version of the cavity method for diluted mean-field spin
models that allows the computation of thermodynamic quantities similar to the
Franz-Parisi quenched potential in sparse random graph models. This method is
developed in the particular case of partially decimated random constraint
satisfaction problems. This allows to develop a theoretical understanding of a
class of algorithms for solving constraint satisfaction problems, in which
elementary degrees of freedom are sequentially assigned according to the
results of a message passing procedure (belief-propagation). We confront this
theoretical analysis to the results of extensive numerical simulations.Comment: 32 pages, 24 figure
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