A Galois Connection for Weighted (Relational) Clones of Infinite Size

A Galois connection between clones and relational clones on a fixed finite domain is one of the cornerstones of the so-called algebraic approach to the computational complexity of non-uniform Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs). Cohen et al. established a Galois connection between finitely-generated weighted clones and finitely-generated weighted relational clones [SICOMP'13], and asked whether this connection holds in general. We answer this question in the affirmative for weighted (relational) clones with real weights and show that the complexity of the corresponding valued CSPs is preserved

Necessary conditions for tractability of valued CSPs

The connection between constraint languages and clone theory has been a fruitful line of research on the complexity of constraint satisfaction problems. In a recent result, Cohen et al. [SICOMP'13] have characterised a Galois connection between valued constraint languages and so-called weighted clones. In this paper, we study the structure of weighted clones. We extend the results of Creed and Zivny from [CP'11/SICOMP'13] on types of weightings necessarily contained in every nontrivial weighted clone. This result has immediate computational complexity consequences as it provides necessary conditions for tractability of weighted clones and thus valued constraint languages. We demonstrate that some of the necessary conditions are also sufficient for tractability, while others are provably not.Comment: To appear in SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics (SIDMA

The power of Sherali-Adams relaxations for general-valued CSPs

We give a precise algebraic characterisation of the power of Sherali-Adams relaxations for solvability of valued constraint satisfaction problems to optimality. The condition is that of bounded width which has already been shown to capture the power of local consistency methods for decision CSPs and the power of semidefinite programming for robust approximation of CSPs. Our characterisation has several algorithmic and complexity consequences. On the algorithmic side, we show that several novel and many known valued constraint languages are tractable via the third level of the Sherali-Adams relaxation. For the known languages, this is a significantly simpler algorithm than the previously obtained ones. On the complexity side, we obtain a dichotomy theorem for valued constraint languages that can express an injective unary function. This implies a simple proof of the dichotomy theorem for conservative valued constraint languages established by Kolmogorov and Zivny [JACM'13], and also a dichotomy theorem for the exact solvability of Minimum-Solution problems. These are generalisations of Minimum-Ones problems to arbitrary finite domains. Our result improves on several previous classifications by Khanna et al. [SICOMP'00], Jonsson et al. [SICOMP'08], and Uppman [ICALP'13].Comment: Full version of an ICALP'15 paper (arXiv:1502.05301

Evaluating aggregate functions on possibilistic data

The need for extending information management systems to handle the imprecision of information found in the real world has been recognized. Fuzzy set theory together with possibility theory represent a uniform framework for extending the relational database model with these features. However, none of the existing proposals for handling imprecision in the literature has dealt with queries involving a functional evaluation of a set of items, traditionally referred to as aggregation. Two kinds of aggregate operators, namely, scalar aggregates and aggregate functions, exist. Both are important for most real-world applications, and are thus being supported by traditional languages like SQL or QUEL. This paper presents a framework for handling these two types of aggregates in the context of imprecise information. We consider three cases, specifically, aggregates within vague queries on precise data, aggregates within precisely specified queries on possibilistic data, and aggregates within vague queries on imprecise data. These extensions are based on fuzzy set-theoretical concepts such as the extension principle, the sigma-count operation, and the possibilistic expected value. The consistency and completeness of the proposed operations is shown

On tractability and congruence distributivity

Constraint languages that arise from finite algebras have recently been the object of study, especially in connection with the Dichotomy Conjecture of Feder and Vardi. An important class of algebras are those that generate congruence distributive varieties and included among this class are lattices, and more generally, those algebras that have near-unanimity term operations. An algebra will generate a congruence distributive variety if and only if it has a sequence of ternary term operations, called Jonsson terms, that satisfy certain equations. We prove that constraint languages consisting of relations that are invariant under a short sequence of Jonsson terms are tractable by showing that such languages have bounded relational width

Hybrid VCSPs with crisp and conservative valued templates

A constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) is a problem of computing a homomorphism ${\bf R} \rightarrow {\bf \Gamma}$ between two relational structures. Analyzing its complexity has been a very fruitful research direction, especially for fixed template CSPs, denoted $CSP({\bf \Gamma})$, in which the right side structure ${\bf \Gamma}$ is fixed and the left side structure ${\bf R}$ is unconstrained. Recently, the hybrid setting, written $CSP_{\mathcal{H}}({\bf \Gamma})$, where both sides are restricted simultaneously, attracted some attention. It assumes that ${\bf R}$ is taken from a class of relational structures $\mathcal{H}$ that additionally is closed under inverse homomorphisms. The last property allows to exploit algebraic tools that have been developed for fixed template CSPs. The key concept that connects hybrid CSPs with fixed-template CSPs is the so called "lifted language". Namely, this is a constraint language ${\bf \Gamma}_{{\bf R}}$ that can be constructed from an input ${\bf R}$. The tractability of that language for any input ${\bf R}\in\mathcal{H}$ is a necessary condition for the tractability of the hybrid problem. In the first part we investigate templates ${\bf \Gamma}$ for which the latter condition is not only necessary, but also is sufficient. We call such templates ${\bf \Gamma}$ widely tractable. For this purpose, we construct from ${\bf \Gamma}$ a new finite relational structure ${\bf \Gamma}'$ and define $\mathcal{H}_0$ as a class of structures homomorphic to ${\bf \Gamma}'$. We prove that wide tractability is equivalent to the tractability of $CSP_{\mathcal{H}_0}({\bf \Gamma})$. Our proof is based on the key observation that ${\bf R}$ is homomorphic to ${\bf \Gamma}'$ if and only if the core of ${\bf \Gamma}_{{\bf R}}$ is preserved by a Siggers polymorphism. Analogous result is shown for valued conservative CSPs.Comment: 21 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1504.0706

Relational Symbolic Execution

Symbolic execution is a classical program analysis technique used to show that programs satisfy or violate given specifications. In this work we generalize symbolic execution to support program analysis for relational specifications in the form of relational properties - these are properties about two runs of two programs on related inputs, or about two executions of a single program on related inputs. Relational properties are useful to formalize notions in security and privacy, and to reason about program optimizations. We design a relational symbolic execution engine, named RelSym which supports interactive refutation, as well as proving of relational properties for programs written in a language with arrays and for-like loops