English

Enumerating k-SAT functions

Combinatorics 2022-04-26 v3

Abstract

How many kk-SAT functions on nn boolean variables are there? What does a typical such function look like? Bollob\'as, Brightwell, and Leader conjectured that, for each fixed k2k \ge 2, the number of kk-SAT functions on nn variables is (1+o(1))2(nk)+n(1+o(1))2^{\binom{n}{k} + n}, or equivalently: a 1o(1)1-o(1) fraction of all kk-SAT functions are unate, i.e., monotone after negating some variables. They proved a weaker version of the conjecture for k=2k=2. The conjecture was confirmed for k=2k=2 by Allen and k=3k=3 by Ilinca and Kahn. We show that the problem of enumerating kk-SAT functions is equivalent to a Tur\'an density problem for partially directed hypergraphs. Our proof uses the hypergraph container method. Furthermore, we confirm the Bollob\'as--Brightwell--Leader conjecture for k=4k=4 by solving the corresponding Tur\'an density problem. Our solution applies a recent result of F\"uredi and Maleki on the minimum triangular edge density in a graph of given edge density. In an appendix (by Nitya Mani and Edward Yu), we further confirm the k=5k=5 case of the conjecture via a brute force computer search.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.09233,
  title  = {Enumerating k-SAT functions},
  author = {Dingding Dong and Nitya Mani and Yufei Zhao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.09233},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

50 pages incl. 3 page appendix. Conference version appeared in SODA '22

R2 v1 2026-06-24T04:20:49.110Z