Related papers: How to refute a random CSP

For a $k$-ary predicate $P$, a random instance of CSP$(P)$ with $n$ variables and $m$ constraints is unsatisfiable with high probability when $m \gg n$. The natural algorithmic task in this regime is \emph{refutation}: finding a proof that…

Let $P:\{0,1\}^k \to \{0,1\}$ be a nontrivial $k$-ary predicate. Consider a random instance of the constraint satisfaction problem $\mathrm{CSP}(P)$ on $n$ variables with $\Delta n$ constraints, each being $P$ applied to $k$ randomly chosen…

Random constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) are known to exhibit threshold phenomena: given a uniformly random instance of a CSP with $n$ variables and $m$ clauses, there is a value of $m = \Omega(n)$ beyond which the CSP will be…

Unlike its cousin 3SAT, the NAE-3SAT (not-all-equal-3SAT) problem has the property that spectral/SDP algorithms can efficiently refute random instances when the constraint density is a large constant (with high probability). But do these…

Under what condition is a random constraint satisfaction problem hard to refute by the sum-of-squares (SoS) algorithm? A sufficient condition is t-wise uniformity, that is, each constraint has a t-wise uniform distribution of satisfying…

We present an algorithm for strongly refuting smoothed instances of all Boolean CSPs. The smoothed model is a hybrid between worst and average-case input models, where the input is an arbitrary instance of the CSP with only the negation…

We present an efficient algorithm to solve semirandom planted instances of any Boolean constraint satisfaction problem (CSP). The semirandom model is a hybrid between worst-case and average-case input models, where the input is generated by…

We define a novel notion of ``non-backtracking'' matrix associated to any symmetric matrix, and we prove a ``Ihara-Bass'' type formula for it. We use this theory to prove new results on polynomial-time strong refutations of random…

We present efficient counting and sampling algorithms for random $k$-SAT when the clause density satisfies $\alpha \le \frac{2^k}{\mathrm{poly}(k)}.$ In particular, the exponential term $2^k$ matches the satisfiability threshold…

Random constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) such as random $3$-SAT are conjectured to be computationally intractable. The average case hardness of random $3$-SAT and other CSPs has broad and far-reaching implications on problems in…

We give an efficient algorithm to strongly refute \emph{semi-random} instances of all Boolean constraint satisfaction problems. The number of constraints required by our algorithm matches (up to polylogarithmic factors) the best-known…

Random instances of constraint satisfaction problems such as k-SAT provide challenging benchmarks. If there are m constraints over n variables there is typically a large range of densities r=m/n where solutions are known to exist with…

Motivated by the pervasiveness of strong inapproximability results for Max-CSPs, we introduce a relaxed notion of an approximate solution of a Max-CSP. In this relaxed version, loosely speaking, the algorithm is allowed to replace the…

An active topic in the study of random constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) is the geometry of the space of satisfying or almost satisfying assignments as the function of the density, for which a precise landscape of predictions has been…

We establish the satisfiability threshold for random $k$-SAT for all $k\ge k_0$, with $k_0$ an absolute constant. That is, there exists a limiting density $\alpha_*(k)$ such that a random $k$-SAT formula of clause density $\alpha$ is with…

Random instances of Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP's) appear to be hard for all known algorithms, when the number of constraints per variable lies in a certain interval. Contributing to the general understanding of the structure of…

We prove that a random 3-SAT instance with clause-to-variable density less than 3.52 is satisfiable with high probability. The proof comes through an algorithm which selects (and sets) a variable depending on its degree and that of its…

Given a fixed arity $k \geq 2$, Min-$k$-CSP on complete instances involves a set of $n$ variables $V$ and one nontrivial constraint for every $k$-subset of variables (so there are $\binom{n}{k}$ constraints). The goal is to find an…

The problem of CSP sparsification asks: for a given CSP instance, what is the sparsest possible reweighting such that for every possible assignment to the instance, the number of satisfied constraints is preserved up to a factor of $1 \pm…

The basic random $k$-SAT problem is: Given a set of $n$ Boolean variables, and $m$ clauses of size $k$ picked uniformly at random from the set of all such clauses on our variables, is the conjunction of these clauses satisfiable? Here we…