Related papers: A Continuous-Discontinuous Second-Order Transition…
A major problem in evaluating stochastic local search algorithms for NP-complete problems is the need for a systematic generation of hard test instances having previously known properties of the optimal solutions. On the basis of…
We study the satisfiability problem for the two-variable first-order logic over structures with one transitive relation. % We show that the problem is decidable in 2-NExpTime for the fragment consisting of formulas where existential…
In {\sc MaxSat}, we ask for an assignment which satisfies the maximum number of clauses for a boolean formula in CNF. We present an algorithm yielding a run time upper bound of $O^*(2^{\frac{1}{6.2158}})$ for {\sc Max-2-Sat} (each clause…
For several models of random constraint satisfaction problems, it was conjectured by physicists and later proved that a sharp satisfiability transition occurs. For random $k$-SAT and related models it happens at clause density $\alpha$…
We study EC3, a variant of Exact Cover which is equivalent to Positive 1-in-3 SAT. Random instances of EC3 were recently used as benchmarks for simulations of an adiabatic quantum algorithm. Empirical results suggest that EC3 has a phase…
A variational approach to finite connectivity spin-glass-like models is developed and applied to describe the structure of optimal solutions in random satisfiability problems. Our variational scheme accurately reproduces the known replica…
Recent work has made substantial progress in understanding the transitions of random constraint satisfaction problems. In particular, for several of these models, the exact satisfiability threshold has been rigorously determined, confirming…
These notes contain, among others, a proof that the average running time of an easy solution to the satisfiability problem for propositional calculus is, under some reasonable assumptions, linear (with constant 2) in the size of the input.…
Random $k$-SAT is the single most intensely studied example of a random constraint satisfaction problem. But despite substantial progress over the past decade, the threshold for the existence of satisfying assignments is not known precisely…
We study an optimal stopping problem with an unbounded, time-dependent and discontinuous reward function. This problem is motivated by the pricing of a variable annuity contract with guaranteed minimum maturity benefit, under the assumption…
Maximum satisfiability is a canonical NP-hard optimization problem that appears empirically hard for random instances. Let us say that a Conjunctive normal form (CNF) formula consisting of $k$-clauses is $p$-satisfiable if there exists a…
Our model is a generalized linear programming relaxation of a much studied random K-SAT problem. Specifically, a set of linear constraints C on K variables is fixed. From a pool of n variables, K variables are chosen uniformly at random and…
We study techniques for deciding the computational complexity of infinite-domain constraint satisfaction problems. For certain fundamental algebraic structures Delta, we prove definability dichotomy theorems of the following form: for every…
Since the early 2000s physicists have developed an ingenious but non-rigorous formalism called the cavity method to put forward precise conjectures on phase transitions in random problems [Mezard, Parisi, Zecchina: Science 2002]. The cavity…
There has been great interest in identifying tractable subclasses of NP complete problems and designing efficient algorithms for these tractable classes. Constraint satisfaction and Bayesian network inference are two examples of such…
In this paper we study a variation of the random $k$-SAT problem, called polarized random $k$-SAT. In this model there is a polarization parameter $p$, and in half of the clauses each variable occurs negated with probability $p$ and pure…
An analysis of the average-case complexity of solving random 3-Satisfiability (SAT) instances with backtrack algorithms is presented. We first interpret previous rigorous works in a unifying framework based on the statistical physics…
A satisfiability (SAT-UNSAT) transition takes place for many optimization problems when the number of constraints, graphically represented by links between variables nodes, is brought above some threshold. If the network of constraints is…
In this paper we determine the complexity of a broad class of problems that extends the temporal constraint satisfaction problems. To be more precise we study the problems Poset-SAT($\Phi$), where $\Phi$ is a given set of quantifier-free…
We examine a constrained Markov decision process under uncertain transition probabilities, with the uncertainty modeled as deviations from observed transition probabilities. We construct the uncertainty set associated with the deviations…