English

Some Results on Random Mixed SAT Problems

Probability 2023-11-07 v1 Computational Complexity

Abstract

In this short paper we present a survey of some results concerning the random SAT problems. To elaborate, the Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) Problem refers to the problem of determining whether a given set of mm Boolean constraints over nn variables can be simultaneously satisfied, i.e. all evaluate to 11 under some interpretation of the variables in {0,1}\{ 0,1\}. If we choose the mm constraints i.i.d. uniformly at random among the set of disjunctive clauses of length kk, then the problem is known as the random kk-SAT problem. It is conjectured that this problem undergoes a structural phase transition; taking m=αnm=\alpha n for α>0\alpha>0, it is believed that the probability of there existing a satisfying assignment tends in the large nn limit to 11 if α<αsat(k)\alpha<\alpha_\mathrm{sat}(k), and to 00 if α>αsat(k)\alpha>\alpha_\mathrm{sat}(k), for some critical value αsat(k)\alpha_\mathrm{sat}(k) depending on kk. We review some of the progress made towards proving this and consider similar conjectures and results for the more general case where the clauses are chosen with varying lengths, i.e. for the so-called random mixed SAT problems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2311.02644,
  title  = {Some Results on Random Mixed SAT Problems},
  author = {Andreas Basse-O'Connor and Tobias Lindhardt Overgaard and Mette Skjøtt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.02644},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Accepted in proceedings of 23rd EYSM

R2 v1 2026-06-28T13:11:58.411Z