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180
A comparison of structural CSP decomposition methods
- Artificial Intelligence
, 2000
"... We compare tractable classes of constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs). We first give a uniform presentation of the major structural CSP decomposition methods. We then introduce a new class of tractable CSPs based on the concept of hypertree decomposition recently developed in Database Theory. We i ..."
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Cited by 174 (26 self)
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We compare tractable classes of constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs). We first give a uniform presentation of the major structural CSP decomposition methods. We then introduce a new class of tractable CSPs based on the concept of hypertree decomposition recently developed in Database Theory. We introduce a framework for comparing parametric decomposition-based methods according to tractability criteria and compare the most relevant methods. We show that the method of hypertree decomposition dominates the others in the case of general (nonbinary) CSPs.
Algebraic structures in combinatorial problems
- TECHNICAL REPORT, TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DRESDEN
, 2001
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Constraints, Consistency, and Closure
- Artificial Intelligence
, 1998
"... Although the constraint satisfaction problem is NP-complete in general, a number of constraint classes have been identified for which some fixed level of local consistency is sufficient to ensure global consistency. In this paper, we describe a simple algebraic property which characterises all possi ..."
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Cited by 68 (14 self)
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Although the constraint satisfaction problem is NP-complete in general, a number of constraint classes have been identified for which some fixed level of local consistency is sufficient to ensure global consistency. In this paper, we describe a simple algebraic property which characterises all possible constraint types for which strong k-consistency is sufficient to ensure global consistency, for each k ? 2. We give a number of examples to illustrate the application of this result. 1 Introduction The constraint satisfaction problem provides a framework in which it is possible to express, in a natural way, many combinatorial problems encountered in artificial intelligence and elsewhere. The aim in a constraint satisfaction problem is to find an assignment of values to a given set of variables subject to constraints on the values which can be assigned simultaneously to certain specified subsets of variables. The constraint satisfaction problem is known to be an NP-complete problem in ge...
Constraint satisfaction problems of bounded width
- IN: PROCEEDINGS OF FOCS 2009
, 2009
"... We provide a full characterization of applicability of The Local Consistency Checking algorithm to solving the non-uniform Constraint Satisfaction Problems. This settles the conjecture of Larose and Zádori. ..."
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Cited by 64 (6 self)
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We provide a full characterization of applicability of The Local Consistency Checking algorithm to solving the non-uniform Constraint Satisfaction Problems. This settles the conjecture of Larose and Zádori.
Constraint Satisfaction Problems And Finite Algebras
, 1999
"... Many natural combinatorial problems can be expressed as constraint satisfaction problems. This class of problems is known to be NP-complete in general, but certain restrictions on the form of the constraints can ensure tractability. In this paper we show that any restricted set of constraint types c ..."
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Cited by 64 (9 self)
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Many natural combinatorial problems can be expressed as constraint satisfaction problems. This class of problems is known to be NP-complete in general, but certain restrictions on the form of the constraints can ensure tractability. In this paper we show that any restricted set of constraint types can be associated with a finite universal algebra. We explore how the computational complexity of a restricted constraint satisfaction problem is connected to properties of the corresponding algebra. For this, we introduce a notion of `tractable algebra' and study how the tractability of an algebra relates to the tractability of its smaller derived algebras, including its subalgebras and homomorphic images. This allows us to significantly reduce the types of algebras which need to be investigated. Using these results we exhibit a common structural property of all known intractable constraint satisfaction problems. Finally, we classify all finite strictly simple surjective algebras wit...
A Survey of Tractable Constraint Satisfaction Problems
, 1997
"... In this report we discuss constraint satisfaction problems. These are problems in which values must be assigned to a collection of variables, subject to specified constraints. We focus specifically on problems in which the domain of possible values for each variable is finite. The report surveys the ..."
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Cited by 52 (5 self)
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In this report we discuss constraint satisfaction problems. These are problems in which values must be assigned to a collection of variables, subject to specified constraints. We focus specifically on problems in which the domain of possible values for each variable is finite. The report surveys the various conditions that have been shown to be sufficient to ensure tractability in these problems. These are broken down into three categories: ffl Conditions on the overall structure; ffl Conditions on the nature of the constraints; ffl Conditions on bounded pieces of the problem. 1 Introduction A constraint satisfaction problem is a way of expressing simultaneous requirements for values of variables. The study of constraint satisfaction problems was initiated by Montanari in 1974 [34], when he used them as a way of describing certain combinatorial problems arising in image-processing. It was quickly realised that the same general framework was applicable to a much wider class of probl...
Towards a Dichotomy Theorem for the Counting Constraint Satisfaction Problem
, 2006
"... The Counting Constraint Satisfaction Problem (#CSP) can be expressed as follows: given a set of variables, a set of values that can be taken by the variables, and a set of constraints specifying some restrictions on the values that can be taken si-multaneously by some variables, determine the number ..."
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Cited by 51 (9 self)
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The Counting Constraint Satisfaction Problem (#CSP) can be expressed as follows: given a set of variables, a set of values that can be taken by the variables, and a set of constraints specifying some restrictions on the values that can be taken si-multaneously by some variables, determine the number of assignments of values to variables that satisfy all the constraints. The #CSP provides a general framework for numerous counting combinatorial problems including counting satisfying assignments to a propositional formula, counting graph homomorphisms, graph reliability and many others. This problem can be parametrized by the set of relations that may appear in a constraint. In this paper we start a systematic study of subclasses of the #CSP restricted in this way. The ultimate goal of this investigation is to distinguish those restricted subclasses of the #CSP which are solvable in polynomial time from those which are not. We show that the complexity of any restricted #CSP class on a finite domain can be deduced from the properties of polymorphisms of the allowed constraints, similar to that for the decision constraint satisfaction problem. Then we prove that if a subclass of the #CSP is solvable in polynomial time, then constraints allowed by the class satisfy some very restrictive condition: they need to have a Mal’tsev polymorphism, that is a ternary operation m(x, y, z) such that m(x, y, y) = m(y, y, x) = x. This condition uniformly explains many existing complexity results for particular cases of the #CSP, including the dichotomy results for the problem of counting graph homomorphisms, and it allows us to obtain new results.
Constraint solving via fractional edge covers
- In Proceedings of the of the 17th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms
, 2006
"... Many important combinatorial problems can be modelled as constraint satisfaction problems, hence identifying polynomial-time solvable classes of constraint satisfaction problems received a lot of attention. In this paper, we are interested in structural properties that can make the problem tractable ..."
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Cited by 51 (9 self)
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Many important combinatorial problems can be modelled as constraint satisfaction problems, hence identifying polynomial-time solvable classes of constraint satisfaction problems received a lot of attention. In this paper, we are interested in structural properties that can make the problem tractable. So far, the largest structural class that is known to be polynomial-time solvable is the class of bounded hypertree width instances introduced by Gottlob et al. [20]. Here we identify a new class of polynomial-time solvable instances: those having bounded fractional edge cover number. Combining hypertree width and fractional edge cover number, we then introduce the notion of fractional hypertree width. We prove that constraint satisfaction problems with bounded fractional hypertree width can be solved in polynomial time (provided that a the tree decomposition is given in the input). We also prove that certain parameterized constraint satisfaction, homomorphism, and embedding problems are fixed-parameter tractable on instances having bounded fractional hypertree width. 1.
The complexity of partition functions
, 2005
"... We give a complexity theoretic classification of the counting versions of so-called H-colouring problems for graphs H that may have multiple edges between the same pair of vertices. More generally, we study the problem of computing a weighted sum of homomorphisms to a weighted graph H. The problem h ..."
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Cited by 50 (6 self)
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We give a complexity theoretic classification of the counting versions of so-called H-colouring problems for graphs H that may have multiple edges between the same pair of vertices. More generally, we study the problem of computing a weighted sum of homomorphisms to a weighted graph H. The problem has two interesting alternative formulations: First, it is equivalent to computing the partition function of a spin system as studied in statistical physics. And second, it is equivalent to counting the solutions to a constraint satisfaction problem whose constraint language consists of two equivalence relations. In a nutshell, our result says that the problem is in polynomial time if the adjacency matrix of H has row rank 1, and #P-hard otherwise.
CSP dichotomy holds for digraphs with no sources and no sinks (a positive answer to the conjecture of Bang-Jensen and Hell)
"... ... of graph homomorphisms) a CSP dichotomy for digraphs with no sources or sinks. The conjecture states that the constraint satisfaction problem for such a digraph is tractable if each component of its core is a circle and is NP-complete otherwise. In this paper we prove this conjecture, and, as a ..."
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Cited by 44 (7 self)
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... of graph homomorphisms) a CSP dichotomy for digraphs with no sources or sinks. The conjecture states that the constraint satisfaction problem for such a digraph is tractable if each component of its core is a circle and is NP-complete otherwise. In this paper we prove this conjecture, and, as a consequence, a conjecture of Bang-Jensen, Hell and MacGillivray from 1995 classifying hereditarily hard digraphs. Further, we show that the CSP dichotomy for digraphs with no sources or sinks agrees with the algebraic characterization conjectured by Bulatov, Jeavons and Krokhin in 2005.
