English

Projective cofactor decompositions of Boolean functions and the satisfiability problem

Computational Complexity 2017-05-09 v2

Abstract

Given a CNF formula FF, we present a new algorithm for deciding the satisfiability (SAT) of FF and computing all solutions of assignments. The algorithm is based on the concept of \emph{cofactors} known in the literature. This paper is a fallout of the previous work by authors on Boolean satisfiability \cite{sul1, sul2,sude}, however the algorithm is essentially independent of the orthogonal expansion concept over which previous papers were based. The algorithm selects a single concrete cofactor recursively by projecting the search space to the set which satisfies a CNF in the formula. This cofactor is called \emph{projective cofactor}. The advantage of such a computation is that it recursively decomposes the satisfiability problem into independent sub-problems at every selection of a projective cofactor. This leads to a parallel algorithm for deciding satisfiability and computing all solutions of a satisfiable formula.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.04569,
  title  = {Projective cofactor decompositions of Boolean functions and the satisfiability problem},
  author = {Madhav Desai and Virendra Sule},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.04569},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

13 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T13:10:59.630Z