272 research outputs found
On the complexity of solving linear congruences and computing nullspaces modulo a constant
We consider the problems of determining the feasibility of a linear
congruence, producing a solution to a linear congruence, and finding a spanning
set for the nullspace of an integer matrix, where each problem is considered
modulo an arbitrary constant k>1. These problems are known to be complete for
the logspace modular counting classes {Mod_k L} = {coMod_k L} in special case
that k is prime (Buntrock et al, 1992). By considering variants of standard
logspace function classes --- related to #L and functions computable by UL
machines, but which only characterize the number of accepting paths modulo k
--- we show that these problems of linear algebra are also complete for
{coMod_k L} for any constant k>1.
Our results are obtained by defining a class of functions FUL_k which are low
for {Mod_k L} and {coMod_k L} for k>1, using ideas similar to those used in the
case of k prime in (Buntrock et al, 1992) to show closure of Mod_k L under NC^1
reductions (including {Mod_k L} oracle reductions). In addition to the results
above, we briefly consider the relationship of the class FUL_k for arbitrary
moduli k to the class {F.coMod_k L} of functions whose output symbols are
verifiable by {coMod_k L} algorithms; and consider what consequences such a
comparison may have for oracle closure results of the form {Mod_k L}^{Mod_k L}
= {Mod_k L} for composite k.Comment: 17 pages, one Appendix; minor corrections and revisions to
presentation, new observations regarding the prospect of oracle closures.
Comments welcom
Efficient Algorithms for Membership in Boolean Hierarchies of Regular Languages
The purpose of this paper is to provide efficient algorithms that decide
membership for classes of several Boolean hierarchies for which efficiency (or
even decidability) were previously not known. We develop new forbidden-chain
characterizations for the single levels of these hierarchies and obtain the
following results: - The classes of the Boolean hierarchy over level
of the dot-depth hierarchy are decidable in (previously only the
decidability was known). The same remains true if predicates mod for fixed
are allowed. - If modular predicates for arbitrary are allowed, then
the classes of the Boolean hierarchy over level are decidable. - For
the restricted case of a two-letter alphabet, the classes of the Boolean
hierarchy over level of the Straubing-Th\'erien hierarchy are
decidable in . This is the first decidability result for this hierarchy. -
The membership problems for all mentioned Boolean-hierarchy classes are
logspace many-one hard for . - The membership problems for quasi-aperiodic
languages and for -quasi-aperiodic languages are logspace many-one complete
for
An Algebraic Preservation Theorem for Aleph-Zero Categorical Quantified Constraint Satisfaction
We prove an algebraic preservation theorem for positive Horn definability in
aleph-zero categorical structures. In particular, we define and study a
construction which we call the periodic power of a structure, and define a
periomorphism of a structure to be a homomorphism from the periodic power of
the structure to the structure itself. Our preservation theorem states that,
over an aleph-zero categorical structure, a relation is positive Horn definable
if and only if it is preserved by all periomorphisms of the structure. We give
applications of this theorem, including a new proof of the known complexity
classification of quantified constraint satisfaction on equality templates
The Complexity of Reasoning for Fragments of Autoepistemic Logic
Autoepistemic logic extends propositional logic by the modal operator L. A
formula that is preceded by an L is said to be "believed". The logic was
introduced by Moore 1985 for modeling an ideally rational agent's behavior and
reasoning about his own beliefs. In this paper we analyze all Boolean fragments
of autoepistemic logic with respect to the computational complexity of the
three most common decision problems expansion existence, brave reasoning and
cautious reasoning. As a second contribution we classify the computational
complexity of counting the number of stable expansions of a given knowledge
base. To the best of our knowledge this is the first paper analyzing the
counting problem for autoepistemic logic
The descriptive complexity approach to LOGCFL
Building upon the known generalized-quantifier-based first-order
characterization of LOGCFL, we lay the groundwork for a deeper investigation.
Specifically, we examine subclasses of LOGCFL arising from varying the arity
and nesting of groupoidal quantifiers. Our work extends the elaborate theory
relating monoidal quantifiers to NC1 and its subclasses. In the absence of the
BIT predicate, we resolve the main issues: we show in particular that no single
outermost unary groupoidal quantifier with FO can capture all the context-free
languages, and we obtain the surprising result that a variant of Greibach's
``hardest context-free language'' is LOGCFL-complete under quantifier-free
BIT-free projections. We then prove that FO with unary groupoidal quantifiers
is strictly more expressive with the BIT predicate than without. Considering a
particular groupoidal quantifier, we prove that first-order logic with majority
of pairs is strictly more expressive than first-order with majority of
individuals. As a technical tool of independent interest, we define the notion
of an aperiodic nondeterministic finite automaton and prove that FO
translations are precisely the mappings computed by single-valued aperiodic
nondeterministic finite transducers.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
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