English

On Satisfiability Problems with a Linear Structure

Data Structures and Algorithms 2016-02-26 v1 Computational Complexity

Abstract

It was recently shown \cite{STV} that satisfiability is polynomially solvable when the incidence graph is an interval bipartite graph (an interval graph turned into a bipartite graph by omitting all edges within each partite set). Here we relax this condition in several directions: First, we show that it holds for kk-interval bigraphs, bipartite graphs which can be converted to interval bipartite graphs by adding to each node of one side at most kk edges; the same result holds for the counting and the weighted maximization version of satisfiability. Second, given two linear orders, one for the variables and one for the clauses, we show how to find, in polynomial time, the smallest kk such that there is a kk-interval bigraph compatible with these two orders. On the negative side we prove that, barring complexity collapses, no such extensions are possible for CSPs more general than satisfiability. We also show NP-hardness of recognizing 1-interval bigraphs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1602.07876,
  title  = {On Satisfiability Problems with a Linear Structure},
  author = {Serge Gaspers and Christos Papadimitriou and Sigve Hortemo Saether and Jan Arne Telle},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.07876},
  year   = {2016}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:57:36.927Z