266 research outputs found
06401 Abstracts Collection -- Complexity of Constraints
From 01.10.06 to 06.10.06, the Dagstuhl Seminar 06401 ``Complexity of Constraints\u27\u27 was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI),
Schloss Dagstuhl.
During the seminar, several participants presented their current
research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of
the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of
seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section
describes the seminar topics and goals in general.
Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available
Lagrangian Relaxation for MAP Estimation in Graphical Models
We develop a general framework for MAP estimation in discrete and Gaussian
graphical models using Lagrangian relaxation techniques. The key idea is to
reformulate an intractable estimation problem as one defined on a more
tractable graph, but subject to additional constraints. Relaxing these
constraints gives a tractable dual problem, one defined by a thin graph, which
is then optimized by an iterative procedure. When this iterative optimization
leads to a consistent estimate, one which also satisfies the constraints, then
it corresponds to an optimal MAP estimate of the original model. Otherwise
there is a ``duality gap'', and we obtain a bound on the optimal solution.
Thus, our approach combines convex optimization with dynamic programming
techniques applicable for thin graphs. The popular tree-reweighted max-product
(TRMP) method may be seen as solving a particular class of such relaxations,
where the intractable graph is relaxed to a set of spanning trees. We also
consider relaxations to a set of small induced subgraphs, thin subgraphs (e.g.
loops), and a connected tree obtained by ``unwinding'' cycles. In addition, we
propose a new class of multiscale relaxations that introduce ``summary''
variables. The potential benefits of such generalizations include: reducing or
eliminating the ``duality gap'' in hard problems, reducing the number or
Lagrange multipliers in the dual problem, and accelerating convergence of the
iterative optimization procedure.Comment: 10 pages, presented at 45th Allerton conference on communication,
control and computing, to appear in proceeding
Achieving New Upper Bounds for the Hypergraph Duality Problem through Logic
The hypergraph duality problem DUAL is defined as follows: given two simple
hypergraphs and , decide whether
consists precisely of all minimal transversals of (in which case
we say that is the dual of ). This problem is
equivalent to deciding whether two given non-redundant monotone DNFs are dual.
It is known that non-DUAL, the complementary problem to DUAL, is in
, where
denotes the complexity class of all problems that after a nondeterministic
guess of bits can be decided (checked) within complexity class
. It was conjectured that non-DUAL is in . In this paper we prove this conjecture and actually
place the non-DUAL problem into the complexity class which is a subclass of . We here refer to the logtime-uniform version of
, which corresponds to , i.e., first order
logic augmented by counting quantifiers. We achieve the latter bound in two
steps. First, based on existing problem decomposition methods, we develop a new
nondeterministic algorithm for non-DUAL that requires to guess
bits. We then proceed by a logical analysis of this algorithm, allowing us to
formulate its deterministic part in . From this result, by
the well known inclusion , it follows
that DUAL belongs also to . Finally, by exploiting
the principles on which the proposed nondeterministic algorithm is based, we
devise a deterministic algorithm that, given two hypergraphs and
, computes in quadratic logspace a transversal of
missing in .Comment: Restructured the presentation in order to be the extended version of
a paper that will shortly appear in SIAM Journal on Computin
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