617 research outputs found
Existence versus Exploitation: The Opacity of Backbones and Backdoors Under a Weak Assumption
Backdoors and backbones of Boolean formulas are hidden structural properties.
A natural goal, already in part realized, is that solver algorithms seek to
obtain substantially better performance by exploiting these structures.
However, the present paper is not intended to improve the performance of SAT
solvers, but rather is a cautionary paper. In particular, the theme of this
paper is that there is a potential chasm between the existence of such
structures in the Boolean formula and being able to effectively exploit them.
This does not mean that these structures are not useful to solvers. It does
mean that one must be very careful not to assume that it is computationally
easy to go from the existence of a structure to being able to get one's hands
on it and/or being able to exploit the structure.
For example, in this paper we show that, under the assumption that P
NP, there are easily recognizable families of Boolean formulas with strong
backdoors that are easy to find, yet for which it is hard (in fact,
NP-complete) to determine whether the formulas are satisfiable. We also show
that, also under the assumption P NP, there are easily recognizable sets
of Boolean formulas for which it is hard (in fact, NP-complete) to determine
whether they have a large backbone
Satisfiability, sequence niches, and molecular codes in cellular signaling
Biological information processing as implemented by regulatory and signaling
networks in living cells requires sufficient specificity of molecular
interaction to distinguish signals from one another, but much of regulation and
signaling involves somewhat fuzzy and promiscuous recognition of molecular
sequences and structures, which can leave systems vulnerable to crosstalk. This
paper examines a simple computational model of protein-protein interactions
which reveals both a sharp onset of crosstalk and a fragmentation of the
neutral network of viable solutions as more proteins compete for regions of
sequence space, revealing intrinsic limits to reliable signaling in the face of
promiscuity. These results suggest connections to both phase transitions in
constraint satisfaction problems and coding theory bounds on the size of
communication codes
Pairs of SAT Assignment in Random Boolean Formulae
We investigate geometrical properties of the random K-satisfiability problem
using the notion of x-satisfiability: a formula is x-satisfiable if there exist
two SAT assignments differing in Nx variables. We show the existence of a sharp
threshold for this property as a function of the clause density. For large
enough K, we prove that there exists a region of clause density, below the
satisfiability threshold, where the landscape of Hamming distances between SAT
assignments experiences a gap: pairs of SAT-assignments exist at small x, and
around x=1/2, but they donot exist at intermediate values of x. This result is
consistent with the clustering scenario which is at the heart of the recent
heuristic analysis of satisfiability using statistical physics analysis (the
cavity method), and its algorithmic counterpart (the survey propagation
algorithm). The method uses elementary probabilistic arguments (first and
second moment methods), and might be useful in other problems of computational
and physical interest where similar phenomena appear
Generating Functions For Kernels of Digraphs (Enumeration & Asymptotics for Nim Games)
In this article, we study directed graphs (digraphs) with a coloring
constraint due to Von Neumann and related to Nim-type games. This is equivalent
to the notion of kernels of digraphs, which appears in numerous fields of
research such as game theory, complexity theory, artificial intelligence
(default logic, argumentation in multi-agent systems), 0-1 laws in monadic
second order logic, combinatorics (perfect graphs)... Kernels of digraphs lead
to numerous difficult questions (in the sense of NP-completeness,
#P-completeness). However, we show here that it is possible to use a generating
function approach to get new informations: we use technique of symbolic and
analytic combinatorics (generating functions and their singularities) in order
to get exact and asymptotic results, e.g. for the existence of a kernel in a
circuit or in a unicircuit digraph. This is a first step toward a
generatingfunctionology treatment of kernels, while using, e.g., an approach "a
la Wright". Our method could be applied to more general "local coloring
constraints" in decomposable combinatorial structures.Comment: Presented (as a poster) to the conference Formal Power Series and
Algebraic Combinatorics (Vancouver, 2004), electronic proceeding
On product, generic and random generic quantum satisfiability
We report a cluster of results on k-QSAT, the problem of quantum
satisfiability for k-qubit projectors which generalizes classical
satisfiability with k-bit clauses to the quantum setting. First we define the
NP-complete problem of product satisfiability and give a geometrical criterion
for deciding when a QSAT interaction graph is product satisfiable with positive
probability. We show that the same criterion suffices to establish quantum
satisfiability for all projectors. Second, we apply these results to the random
graph ensemble with generic projectors and obtain improved lower bounds on the
location of the SAT--unSAT transition. Third, we present numerical results on
random, generic satisfiability which provide estimates for the location of the
transition for k=3 and k=4 and mild evidence for the existence of a phase which
is satisfiable by entangled states alone.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Updated to more closely match published
version. New proof in appendi
Breaking Instance-Independent Symmetries In Exact Graph Coloring
Code optimization and high level synthesis can be posed as constraint
satisfaction and optimization problems, such as graph coloring used in register
allocation. Graph coloring is also used to model more traditional CSPs relevant
to AI, such as planning, time-tabling and scheduling. Provably optimal
solutions may be desirable for commercial and defense applications.
Additionally, for applications such as register allocation and code
optimization, naturally-occurring instances of graph coloring are often small
and can be solved optimally. A recent wave of improvements in algorithms for
Boolean satisfiability (SAT) and 0-1 Integer Linear Programming (ILP) suggests
generic problem-reduction methods, rather than problem-specific heuristics,
because (1) heuristics may be upset by new constraints, (2) heuristics tend to
ignore structure, and (3) many relevant problems are provably inapproximable.
Problem reductions often lead to highly symmetric SAT instances, and
symmetries are known to slow down SAT solvers. In this work, we compare several
avenues for symmetry breaking, in particular when certain kinds of symmetry are
present in all generated instances. Our focus on reducing CSPs to SAT allows us
to leverage recent dramatic improvement in SAT solvers and automatically
benefit from future progress. We can use a variety of black-box SAT solvers
without modifying their source code because our symmetry-breaking techniques
are static, i.e., we detect symmetries and add symmetry breaking predicates
(SBPs) during pre-processing.
An important result of our work is that among the types of
instance-independent SBPs we studied and their combinations, the simplest and
least complete constructions are the most effective. Our experiments also
clearly indicate that instance-independent symmetries should mostly be
processed together with instance-specific symmetries rather than at the
specification level, contrary to what has been suggested in the literature
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