NAE-resolution: A new resolution refutation technique to prove not-all-equal unsatisfiability

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 736-751
Author(s):  
Hans Kleine Büning ◽  
P. Wojciechowski ◽  
K. Subramani
Keyword(s):  
Normal Form ◽  
Conjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Principal Result ◽  
Satisfying Assignment ◽  
Boolean Formulas ◽  
Complete Procedure ◽  
Np Complete ◽  
Resolution Refutation ◽  
Original Formula ◽  
Cnf Formulas

AbstractIn this paper, we analyze Boolean formulas in conjunctive normal form (CNF) from the perspective of read-once resolution (ROR) refutation schemes. A read-once (resolution) refutation is one in which each clause is used at most once. Derived clauses can be used as many times as they are deduced. However, clauses in the original formula can only be used as part of one derivation. It is well known that ROR is not complete; that is, there exist unsatisfiable formulas for which no ROR exists. Likewise, the problem of checking if a 3CNF formula has a read-once refutation is NP-complete. This paper is concerned with a variant of satisfiability called not-all-equal satisfiability (NAE-satisfiability). A CNF formula is NAE-satisfiable if it has a satisfying assignment in which at least one literal in each clause is set to false. It is well known that the problem of checking NAE-satisfiability is NP-complete. Clearly, the class of CNF formulas which are NAE-satisfiable is a proper subset of satisfiable CNF formulas. It follows that traditional resolution cannot always find a proof of NAE-unsatisfiability. Thus, traditional resolution is not a sound procedure for checking NAE-satisfiability. In this paper, we introduce a variant of resolution called NAE-resolution which is a sound and complete procedure for checking NAE-satisfiability in CNF formulas. The focus of this paper is on a variant of NAE-resolution called read-once NAE-resolution in which each clause (input or derived) can be part of at most one NAE-resolution step. Our principal result is that read-once NAE-resolution is a sound and complete procedure for 2CNF formulas. Furthermore, we provide an algorithm to determine the smallest such NAE-resolution in polynomial time. This is in stark contrast to the corresponding problem concerning 2CNF formulas and ROR refutations. We also show that the problem of checking whether a 3CNF formula has a read-once NAE-resolution is NP-complete.

METHODS OF REDUCING OF LARGE BOOLEAN FORMULAS REPRESENTED IN A CONJUNCTIVE NORMAL FORM FOR DETERMINING THEIR SATISFIABILITY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.I. Gdansky ◽  
◽  
A.A. Denisov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Normal Form ◽  
Normal Forms ◽  
Conjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Boolean Formulas

The article explores the satisfiability of conjunctive normal forms used in modeling systems.The problems of CNF preprocessing are considered.The analysis of particular methods for reducing this formulas, which have polynomial input complexity is given.

The decision problem for formulas with a small number of atomic subformulas

1973 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry R. Lewis ◽  
Warren D. Goldfarb
Keyword(s):  
Normal Form ◽  
Decision Problem ◽  
Conjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Disjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Principal Result ◽  
The Other ◽  
Universal Quantifiers

In this paper we consider classes of quantificational formulas specified by restrictions on the number of atomic subformulas appearing in a formula. Little seems to be known about the decision problem for such classes, except that the class whose members contain at most two distinct atomic subformulas is decidable [2]. (We use “decidable” and “undecidable” throughout with respect to satisfiability rather than validity. All undecidable problems to which we refer are of maximal r.e. degree.) The principal result of this paper is the undecidability of the class of those formulas containing five atomic subformulas and with prefixes of the form ∀∃∀…∀. In fact, we show the undecidability of two sub-classes of this class: one (Theorem 1) consists of formulas whose matrices are in disjunctive normal form with two disjuncts; the other (Corollary 1) consists of formulas whose matrices are in conjunctive normal form with three conjuncts. (Theorem 1 sharpens Orevkov's result [8] that the class of formulas in disjunctive normal form with two disjuncts is undecidable.) A second corollary of Theorem 1 shows the undecidability of the class of formulas with prefixes of the form ∀…∀∃, containing six atomic subformulas, and in conjunctive normal form with three conjuncts. These restrictions to prefixes ∀∃∀…∀ and ∀…∀∃ are optimal. For by a result of the first author [5], any class of prenex formulas obtained by restricting both the number of atomic formulas and the number of universal quantifiers is reducible to a finite class of formulas, and so each such class is decidable; and the class of formulas with prefixes ∃…∃∀…∀ is, of course, decidable.

scholarly journals On Minimum Representations of Matched Formulas

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 707-723
Author(s):  
O. Cepek ◽  
S. Gursky ◽  
P. Kucera
Keyword(s):  
Normal Form ◽  
Boolean Function ◽  
Minimization Problem ◽  
Conjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Boolean Formula ◽  
Polynomial Hierarchy ◽  
Partial Assignment ◽  
Complete Problem ◽  
Boolean Minimization ◽  
Np Complete

A Boolean formula in conjunctive normal form (CNF) is called matched if the system of sets of variables which appear in individual clauses has a system of distinct representatives. Each matched CNF is trivially satisfiable (each clause can be satisfied by its representative variable). Another property which is easy to see, is that the class of matched CNFs is not closed under partial assignment of truth values to variables. This latter property leads to a fact (proved here) that given two matched CNFs it is co-NP complete to decide whether they are logically equivalent. The construction in this proof leads to another result: a much shorter and simpler proof of the fact that the Boolean minimization problem for matched CNFs is a complete problem for the second level of the polynomial hierarchy. The main result of this paper deals with the structure of clause minimum CNFs. We prove here that if a Boolean function f admits a representation by a matched CNF then every clause minimum CNF representation of f is matched.

scholarly journals A Cardinal Improvement to Pseudo-Boolean Solving

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (02) ◽  
pp. 1495-1503
Author(s):  
Jan Elffers ◽  
Jakob Nordstr”m
Keyword(s):  
Normal Form ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Conjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Conflict Analysis ◽  
Cardinality Constraints ◽  
Sat Solvers ◽  
Boolean Formulas ◽  
Clause Learning

Pseudo-Boolean solvers hold out the theoretical potential of exponential improvements over conflict-driven clause learning (CDCL) SAT solvers, but in practice perform very poorly if the input is given in the standard conjunctive normal form (CNF) format. We present a technique to remedy this problem by recovering cardinality constraints from CNF on the fly during search. This is done by collecting potential building blocks of cardinality constraints during propagation and combining these blocks during conflict analysis. Our implementation has a non-negligible but manageable overhead when detection is not successful, and yields significant gains for some SAT competition and crafted benchmarks for which pseudo-Boolean reasoning is stronger than CDCL. It also boosts performance for some native pseudo-Boolean formulas where this approach helps to improve learned constraints.

scholarly journals ADDMC: Weighted Model Counting with Algebraic Decision Diagrams

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (02) ◽  
pp. 1468-1476
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Dudek ◽  
Vu Phan ◽  
Moshe Vardi
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Programming ◽  
Data Structure ◽  
Normal Form ◽  
Standard Model ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Conjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Decision Diagrams ◽  
Boolean Formulas ◽  
Model Counting ◽  
Weighted Model

We present an algorithm to compute exact literal-weighted model counts of Boolean formulas in Conjunctive Normal Form. Our algorithm employs dynamic programming and uses Algebraic Decision Diagrams as the main data structure. We implement this technique in ADDMC, a new model counter. We empirically evaluate various heuristics that can be used with ADDMC. We then compare ADDMC to four state-of-the-art weighted model counters (Cachet, c2d, d4, and miniC2D) on 1914 standard model counting benchmarks and show that ADDMC significantly improves the virtual best solver.

scholarly journals Fault Tolerant Boolean Satisfiability

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 503-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Roy
Keyword(s):  
Polynomial Time ◽  
Optimization Problems ◽  
Fault Tolerant ◽  
Boolean Formula ◽  
Satisfying Assignment ◽  
Satisfiability Solvers ◽  
Boolean Formulas ◽  
Np Complete ◽  
Bit Flip ◽  
Small Alteration

A delta-model is a satisfying assignment of a Boolean formula for which any small alteration, such as a single bit flip, can be repaired by flips to some small number of other bits, yielding a new satisfying assignment. These satisfying assignments represent robust solutions to optimization problems (e.g., scheduling) where it is possible to recover from unforeseen events (e.g., a resource becoming unavailable). The concept of delta-models was introduced by Ginsberg, Parkes and Roy (AAAI 1998) , where it was proved that finding delta-models for general Boolean formulas is NP-complete. In this paper, we extend that result by studying the complexity of finding delta-models for classes of Boolean formulas which are known to have polynomial time satisfiability solvers. In particular, we examine 2-SAT, Horn-SAT, Affine-SAT, dual-Horn-SAT, 0-valid and 1-valid SAT. We see a wide variation in the complexity of finding delta-models, e.g., while 2-SAT and Affine-SAT have polynomial time tests for delta-models, testing whether a Horn-SAT formula has one is NP-complete.

On Random Betweenness Constraints

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 775-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREAS GOERDT
Keyword(s):  
Normal Form ◽  
High Probability ◽  
Conjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Satisfiability Problem ◽  
Linear Ordering ◽  
Satisfiability Problems ◽  
Ordering Constraints ◽  
Random Instances ◽  
Np Complete

Ordering constraints are formally analogous to instances of the satisfiability problem in conjunctive normal form, but instead of a boolean assignment we consider a linear ordering of the variables in question. A clause becomes true given a linear ordering if and only if the relative ordering of its variables obeys the constraint considered.The naturally arising satisfiability problems are NP-complete for many types of constraints. We look at random ordering constraints. Previous work of the author shows that there is a sharp unsatisfiability threshold for certain types of constraints. The value of the threshold, however, is essentially undetermined. We pursue the problem of approximating the precise value of the threshold. We show that random instances of the betweenness constraint are satisfiable with high probability if the number of randomly picked clauses is ≤0.92n, where n is the number of variables considered. This improves the previous bound, which is <0.82n random clauses. The proof is based on a binary relaxation of the betweenness constraint and involves some ideas not used before in the area of random ordering constraints.

A method for counting models on grid Boolean formulas1

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Marco A. López-Medina ◽  
J. Raymundo Marcial-Romero ◽  
Guillermo De Ita Luna ◽  
José A. Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Asymptotic Behavior ◽  
Normal Form ◽  
Time Complexity ◽  
Conjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Grid Graph ◽  
Boolean Formulas ◽  
Novel Algorithm

We present a novel algorithm based on combinatorial operations on lists for computing the number of models on two conjunctive normal form Boolean formulas whose restricted graph is represented by a grid graph Gm,n. We show that our algorithm is correct and its time complexity is O ( t · 1 . 618 t + 2 + t · 1 . 618 2 t + 4 ) , where t = n · m is the total number of vertices in the graph. For this class of formulas, we show that our proposal improves the asymptotic behavior of the time-complexity with respect of the current leader algorithm for counting models on two conjunctive form formulas of this kind.

scholarly journals Clause/Term Resolution and Learning in the Evaluation of Quantified Boolean Formulas

2006 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 371-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Giunchiglia ◽  
M. Narizzano ◽  
A. Tacchella
Keyword(s):  
Normal Form ◽  
Automated Reasoning ◽  
Comparative Evaluation ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Conjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Disjunctive Normal Form ◽  
Propositional Satisfiability ◽  
Quantified Boolean Formulas ◽  
Boolean Formulas ◽  
Input Formula

Resolution is the rule of inference at the basis of most procedures for automated reasoning. In these procedures, the input formula is first translated into an equisatisfiable formula in conjunctive normal form (CNF) and then represented as a set of clauses. Deduction starts by inferring new clauses by resolution, and goes on until the empty clause is generated or satisfiability of the set of clauses is proven, e.g., because no new clauses can be generated. In this paper, we restrict our attention to the problem of evaluating Quantified Boolean Formulas (QBFs). In this setting, the above outlined deduction process is known to be sound and complete if given a formula in CNF and if a form of resolution, called ``Q-resolution'', is used. We introduce Q-resolution on terms, to be used for formulas in disjunctive normal form. We show that the computation performed by most of the available procedures for QBFs --based on the Davis-Logemann-Loveland procedure (DLL) for propositional satisfiability-- corresponds to a tree in which Q-resolution on terms and clauses alternate. This poses the theoretical bases for the introduction of learning, corresponding to recording Q-resolution formulas associated with the nodes of the tree. We discuss the problems related to the introduction of learning in DLL based procedures, and present solutions extending state-of-the-art proposals coming from the literature on propositional satisfiability. Finally, we show that our DLL based solver extended with learning, performs significantly better on benchmarks used in the 2003 QBF solvers comparative evaluation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document