3,335 research outputs found
Foreword: a Commemorative Issue for Alan L. Selman
Alan L. Selman (1941 - 2021) was a former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Theory of Computing Systems. To commemorate his extraordinary contributions to theoretical computer science, we solicited papers from the theory community. Nine groups responded to the call, which we present in this issue..
Evaluating Datalog via Tree Automata and Cycluits
We investigate parameterizations of both database instances and queries that
make query evaluation fixed-parameter tractable in combined complexity. We show
that clique-frontier-guarded Datalog with stratified negation (CFG-Datalog)
enjoys bilinear-time evaluation on structures of bounded treewidth for programs
of bounded rule size. Such programs capture in particular conjunctive queries
with simplicial decompositions of bounded width, guarded negation fragment
queries of bounded CQ-rank, or two-way regular path queries. Our result is
shown by translating to alternating two-way automata, whose semantics is
defined via cyclic provenance circuits (cycluits) that can be tractably
evaluated.Comment: 56 pages, 63 references. Journal version of "Combined Tractability of
Query Evaluation via Tree Automata and Cycluits (Extended Version)" at
arXiv:1612.04203. Up to the stylesheet, page/environment numbering, and
possible minor publisher-induced changes, this is the exact content of the
journal paper that will appear in Theory of Computing Systems. Update wrt
version 1: latest reviewer feedbac
From Causes for Database Queries to Repairs and Model-Based Diagnosis and Back
In this work we establish and investigate connections between causes for
query answers in databases, database repairs wrt. denial constraints, and
consistency-based diagnosis. The first two are relatively new research areas in
databases, and the third one is an established subject in knowledge
representation. We show how to obtain database repairs from causes, and the
other way around. Causality problems are formulated as diagnosis problems, and
the diagnoses provide causes and their responsibilities. The vast body of
research on database repairs can be applied to the newer problems of computing
actual causes for query answers and their responsibilities. These connections,
which are interesting per se, allow us, after a transition -inspired by
consistency-based diagnosis- to computational problems on hitting sets and
vertex covers in hypergraphs, to obtain several new algorithmic and complexity
results for database causality.Comment: To appear in Theory of Computing Systems. By invitation to special
issue with extended papers from ICDT 2015 (paper arXiv:1412.4311
Dimension Extractors and Optimal Decompression
A *dimension extractor* is an algorithm designed to increase the effective
dimension -- i.e., the amount of computational randomness -- of an infinite
binary sequence, in order to turn a "partially random" sequence into a "more
random" sequence. Extractors are exhibited for various effective dimensions,
including constructive, computable, space-bounded, time-bounded, and
finite-state dimension. Using similar techniques, the Kucera-Gacs theorem is
examined from the perspective of decompression, by showing that every infinite
sequence S is Turing reducible to a Martin-Loef random sequence R such that the
asymptotic number of bits of R needed to compute n bits of S, divided by n, is
precisely the constructive dimension of S, which is shown to be the optimal
ratio of query bits to computed bits achievable with Turing reductions. The
extractors and decompressors that are developed lead directly to new
characterizations of some effective dimensions in terms of optimal
decompression by Turing reductions.Comment: This report was combined with a different conference paper "Every
Sequence is Decompressible from a Random One" (cs.IT/0511074, at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11780342_17), and both titles were changed, with
the conference paper incorporated as section 5 of this new combined paper.
The combined paper was accepted to the journal Theory of Computing Systems,
as part of a special issue of invited papers from the second conference on
Computability in Europe, 200
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