Boolean functions with long prime implicants

In this short note we introduce a hierarchy of classes of Boolean functions, where each class is defined by the minimum allowed length of prime implicants of the functions in the class. We show that for a given DNF and a given class in the hierarchy, it is possible to test in polynomial time whether the DNF represents a function from the given class. For the first class in the hierarchy we moreover present a polynomial time algorithm which for a given input DNF outputs a shortest logically equivalent DNF, i.e. a shortest DNF representation of the underlying function. This class is therefore a new member of a relatively small family of classes for which the Boolean minimization problem can be solved in polynomial time. For the second class and higher classes in the hierarchy we show that the Boolean minimization problem can be approximated within a constant factor.     

基于动态奖惩的CDCL SAT求解器分支启发式算法

分支启发式算法在CDCL SAT求解器中有着非常重要的作用,传统的分支启发式算法在计算变量活性得分时只考虑了冲突次数而并未考虑决策层和冲突决策层所带来的影响。为了提高SAT问题的求解效率,受EVSIDS和ACIDS的启发,提出了基于动态奖惩DRPB的分支启发式算法。每当冲突发生时,DRPB通过综合考虑冲突次数、决策层、冲突决策层和变量冲突频率来更新变量活性得分。用DRPB替代VSIDS算法改进了Glucose 3.0,并测试了SATLIB基准库、2015年和2016年SAT竞赛中的实例。实验结果表明,与传统、单一的奖励变量分支策略相比,所提分支策略可以通过减少搜索树的分支和布尔约束传播次数来减小搜索树的规模并提高SAT求解器的性能。     

Configuration landscape analysis and backbone guided local search.: Part I: Satisfiability and maximum satisfiability

Boolean satisfiability (SAT) and maximum satisfiability (Max-SAT) are difficult combinatorial problems that have many important real-world applications. In this paper, we first investigate the configuration landscapes of local minima reached by the WalkSAT local search algorithm, one of the most effective algorithms for SAT. A configuration landscape of a set of local minima is their distribution in terms of quality and structural differences relative to an optimal or a reference solution. Our experimental results show that local minima from WalkSAT form large clusters, and their configuration landscapes constitute big valleys, in that high quality local minima typically share large partial structures with optimal solutions. Inspired by this insight into WalkSAT and the previous research on phase transitions and backbones of combinatorial problems, we propose and develop a novel method that exploits the configuration landscapes of such local minima. The new method, termed as backbone-guided search, can be embedded in a local search algorithm, such as WalkSAT, to improve its performance. Our experimental results show that backbone-guided local search is effective on overconstrained random Max-SAT instances. Moreover, on large problem instances from a SAT library (SATLIB), the backbone guided WalkSAT algorithm finds satisfiable solutions more often than WalkSAT on SAT problem instances, and obtains better solutions than WalkSAT on Max-SAT problem instances, improving solution quality by 20% on average.     

求解可满足问题的调查传播算法以及步长的影响规律

该文研究了求解可满足问题的调查传播算法．该算法利用合取范式因子图进行调查消息的迭代,并根据每一次迭代的收敛情况对部分布尔变量赋值以对问题进行简化,最后把简化的问题利用局部搜索算法来求解．文中所谓步长是指在每一次迭代收敛之后根据赋值倾向进行赋值的变量个数．该文根据模拟实验观察到步长对调查传播算法的影响规律,即随着步长的递增,算法的时间耗费以及算法的有效性都有近似单调递减的趋势．     

在形式验证和ATPG中的布尔可满足性问题

介绍布尔可满足性(SAT)求解程序在测试向量自动生成、符号模型检查、组合等价性检查和RTL电路设计验证等电子设计自动化领域中的应用．着重阐述如何在算法中有机地结合电路拓扑结构及其与特定应用相关的信息，以便提高问题求解效率．最后给出下一步可能的研究方向。     

Resolution cannot polynomially simulate compressed-BFS

Many algorithms for Boolean satisfiability (SAT) work within the framework of resolution as a proof system, and thus on unsatisfiable instances they can be viewed as attempting to find proofs by resolution. However it has been known since the 1980s that every resolution proof of the pigeonhole principle (PHP_n^m), suitably encoded as a CNF instance, includes exponentially many steps [18]. Therefore SAT solvers based upon the DLL procedure [12] or the DP procedure [13] must take exponential time. Polynomial-sized proofs of the pigeonhole principle exist for different proof systems, but general-purpose SAT solvers often remain confined to resolution. This result is in correlation with empirical evidence. Previously, we introduced the Compressed-BFS algorithm to solve the SAT decision problem. In an earlier work [27], an implementation of a Compressed-BFS algorithm empirically solved instances in (n⁴) time. Here, we add to this claim, and show analytically that these instances are solvable in polynomial time by Compressed-BFS. Thus the class of tautologies efficiently provable by Compressed-BFS is different than that of any resolution-based procedure. We hope that the details of our complexity analysis shed some light on the proof system implied by Compressed-BFS. Our proof focuses on structural invariants within the compressed data structure that stores collections of sets of open clauses during the Compressed-BFS algorithm. We bound the size of this data structure, as well as the overall memory, by a polynomial. We then use this to show that the overall runtime is bounded by a polynomial.     

Solving SAT problem by heuristic polarity decision-making algorithm

This paper presents a heuristic polarity decision-making algorithm for solving Boolean satisfiability (SAT). The algorithm inherits many features of the current state-of-the-art SAT solvers, such as fast BCP, clause recording, restarts, etc. In addition, a preconditioning step that calculates the polarities of variables according to the cover distribution of Karnaugh map is introduced into DPLL procedure, which greatly reduces the number of conflicts in the search process. The proposed approach is implemented as a SAT solver named DiffSat. Experiments show that DiffSat can solve many "real-life" instances in a reasonable time while the best existing SAT solvers, such as Zchaff and MiniSat, cannot. In particular, DiffSat can solve every instance of Bart benchmark suite in less than 0.03 s while Zchaff and MiniSat fail under a 900 s time limit. Furthermore, DiffSat even outperforms the outstanding incomplete algorithm DLM in some instances.     

Online over time processing of combinatorial problems

In an online environment, jobs arrive over time and there is no information in advance about how many jobs are going to be processed and what their processing times are going to be. In this paper, we study the online scheduling of Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) and Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) instances that are well-known NP-complete problems. Typical online machine scheduling approaches assume that jobs are completed at some point in order to minimize functions related to completion time (e.g., makespan, minimum lateness, total weighted tardiness, etc). In this work, we formalize and present an online over time problem where arriving instances are subject to waiting time constraints. We propose computational approaches that combine the use of machine learning, MIP, and instance interruption heuristics. Unlike other approaches, we attempt to maximize the number of solved instances using single and multiple machine configurations. Our empirical evaluation with well-known SAT and MIP instances, suggest that our interruption heuristics can improve generic ordering policies to solve up to 21.6x and 12.2x more SAT and MIP instances. Additionally, our hybrid approach observed up to 90% of solved instances with respect to a semi clairvoyant policy (SCP).     

二元可满足性问题有解的充要条件

二元可满足性问题是一个多项式可解的问题．本文首先证明了该问题有解的充要条件，然后给出了判定该问题的一个新的多项式算法．如果判定某个表达式是可满足的话，那么求解算法不需要任何回溯就能准确地给出它的每个解．本文试图通过对二元可满足性的研究为研究其它问题提供一点启示．     

Quantified maximum satisfiability

In recent years, there have been significant improvements in algorithms both for Quantified Boolean Formulas (QBF) and for Maximum Satisfiability (MaxSAT). This paper studies an optimization extension of QBF and considers the problem in a quantified MaxSAT setting. More precisely, the general QMaxSAT problem is defined for QBFs with a set of soft clausal constraints and consists in finding the largest subset of the soft constraints such that the remaining QBF is true. Two approaches are investigated. One is based on relaxing the soft clauses and performing an iterative search on the cost function. The other approach, which is the main contribution of the paper, is inspired by recent work on MaxSAT, and exploits the iterative identification of unsatisfiable cores. The paper investigates the application of these approaches to the two concrete problems of computing smallest minimal unsatisfiable subformulas (SMUS) and smallest minimal equivalent subformulas (SMES), decision versions of which are well-known problems in the second level of the polynomial hierarchy. Experimental results, obtained on representative problem instances, indicate that the core-guided approach for the SMUS and SMES problems outperforms the use of iterative search over the values of the cost function. More significantly, the core-guided approach to SMUS also outperforms the state-of-the-art SMUS extractor Digger.     

An Algorithm to Evaluate Quantified Boolean Formulae and Its Experimental Evaluation

The high computational complexity of advanced reasoning tasks such as reasoning about knowledge and planning calls for efficient and reliable algorithms for reasoning problems harder than NP. In this paper we propose Evaluate, an algorithm for evaluating quantified Boolean formulae (QBFs). Algorithms for evaluation of QBFs are suitable for experimental analysis of problems that belong to a wide range of complexity classes, a property not easily found in other formalisms. Evaluate is a generalization of the Davis–Putnam procedure for SAT and is guaranteed to work in polynomial space. Before presenting the algorithm, we discuss several abstract properties of QBFs that we singled out to make it more efficient. We also discuss various options that were investigated about heuristics and data structures and report the main results of the experimental analysis. In particular, Evaluate is orders of magnitude more efficient than a nested backtracking procedure that resorts to a Davis–Putnam algorithm for handling the innermost set of quantifiers. Moreover, experiments show that randomly generated QBFs exhibit regular patterns such as phase transition and easy-hard-easy distribution.     

Genetic-fuzzy approach to the Boolean satisfiability problem

This study is concerned with the Boolean satisfiability (SAT) problem and its solution in setting a hybrid computational intelligence environment of genetic and fuzzy computing. In this framework, fuzzy sets realize an embedding principle meaning that original two-valued (Boolean) functions under investigation are extended to their continuous counterparts resulting in the form of fuzzy (multivalued) functions. In the sequel, the SAT problem is reformulated for the fuzzy functions and solved using a genetic algorithm (GA). It is shown that a GA, especially its recursive version, is an efficient tool for handling multivariable SAT problems. Thorough experiments revealed that the recursive version of the GA can solve SAT problems with more than 1000 variables     

Cell formation in group technology using constraint programming and Boolean satisfiability

Cell formation consists in organizing a plant as a set of cells, each of them containing machines that process similar types or families of parts. The idea is to minimize the part flow among cells in order to reduce costs and increase productivity. The literature presents different approaches devoted to solve this problem, which are mainly based on mathematical programming and on evolutionary computing. Mathematical programming can guarantee a global optimal solution, however at a higher computational cost than an evolutionary algorithm, which can assure a good enough optimum in a fixed amount of time. In this paper, we model and solve this problem by using state-of-the-art constraint programming (CP) techniques and Boolean satisfiability (SAT) technology. We present different experimental results that demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed optimization models. Indeed, CP and SAT implementations are able to reach the global optima in all tested instances and in competitive runtime.     

求解SAT问题的线性半定规划算法

将线性半定规划应用到SAT问题的求解过程中。首先将SAT实例转化为整数规划问题,然后松弛为线性规划模型,最后再转化为一般的线性半定规划模型去求解。用SDPA-M软件求解线性半定规划问题后,规定了如何根据目标函数值去判定SAT实例和当CNF公式可满足时如何根据最优指派的概率X^＊i（i=1,…,n）去进行变元赋值,以期求得该公式的可满足指派。上述算法不仅可以判定SAT问题,而且对于符合算法规定可满足的CNF公式皆可给出一个可满足指派。求解SAT问题的线性半定规划算法在文章中被描述并被给予相应算例。     

一类可分离SAT问题的O(1.890n)精确算法

布尔可满足性问题（SAT）是指对于给定的布尔公式,是否存在一个可满足的真值指派.这是第1个被证明的NP完全问题,一般认为不存在多项式时间算法,除非P=NP.学者们大都研究了子句长度不超过k的SAT问题（k-SAT）,从全局搜索到局部搜索,给出了大量的相对有效算法,包括随机算法和确定算法.目前,最好算法的时间复杂度不超过O（（2-2/k）ⁿ）,当k=3时,最好算法时间复杂度为O（1.308ⁿ）.而对于更一般的与子句长度k无关的SAT问题,很少有文献涉及.引入了一类可分离SAT问题,即3-正则可分离可满足性问题（3-RSSAT）,证明了3-RSSAT是NP完全问题,给出了一般SAT问题3-正则可分离性的O（1.890ⁿ）判定算法.然后,利用矩阵相乘算法的研究成果,给出了3-RSSAT问题的O（1.890ⁿ）精确算法,该算法与子句长度无关.     

Complete Boolean Satisfiability Solving Algorithms Based on Local Search

Boolean satisfiability (SAT) is a well-known problem in computer science, artificial intelligence, and operations research. This paper focuses on the satisfiability problem of Model RB structure that is similar to graph coloring problems and others. We propose a translation method and three effective complete SAT solving algorithms based on the characterization of Model RB structure. We translate clauses into a graph with exclusive sets and relative sets. In order to reduce search depth, we determine search order using vertex weights and clique in the graph. The results show that our algorithms are much more effective than the best SAT solvers in numerous Model RB benchmarks, especially in those large benchmark instances.     

Satisfiability-Based Algorithms for Boolean Optimization

This paper proposes new algorithms for the Binate Covering Problem (BCP), a well-known restriction of Boolean Optimization. Binate Covering finds application in many areas of Computer Science and Engineering. In Artificial Intelligence, BCP can be used for computing minimum-size prime implicants of Boolean functions, of interest in Automated Reasoning and Non-Monotonic Reasoning. Moreover, Binate Covering is an essential modeling tool in Electronic Design Automation. The objectives of the paper are to briefly review branch-and-bound algorithms for BCP, to describe how to apply backtrack search pruning techniques from the Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) domain to BCP, and to illustrate how to strengthen those pruning techniques by exploiting the actual formulation of BCP. Experimental results, obtained on representative instances indicate that the proposed techniques provide significant performance gains for a large number of problem instances.     

Heuristic-Based Backtracking Relaxation for Propositional Satisfiability

In recent years backtrack search algorithms for propositional satisfiability (SAT) have been the subject of dramatic improvements. These improvements allowed SAT solvers to successfully solve instances with thousands or tens of thousands of variables. However, many new challenging problem instances are still too hard for current SAT solvers. As a result, further improvements to SAT technology are expected to have key consequences in solving hard real-world instances. This paper introduces a new idea: choosing the backtrack variable using a heuristic approach with the goal of diversifying the regions of the space that are explored during the search. The proposed heuristics are inspired by the heuristics proposed in recent years for the decision branching step of SAT solvers, namely, VSIDS and its improvements. Completeness conditions are established, which guarantee completeness for the new algorithm, as well as for any other incomplete backtracking algorithm. Experimental results on hundreds of instances derived from real-world problems show that the new technique is able to speed SAT solvers, while aborting fewer instances. These results clearly motivate the integration of heuristic backtracking in SAT solvers.     

Satisfiability with Index Dependency

We study the Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT) restricted on input formulas for which there are linear arithmetic constraints imposed on the indices of variables occurring in the same clause.This can be seen as a structural counterpart of Schaefer’s dichotomy theorem which studies the SAT problem with additional constraints on the assigned values of variables in the same clause.More precisely,let k-SAT(m,A) denote the SAT problem restricted on instances of k-CNF formulas,in every clause of which the indices of the last k m variables are totally decided by the first m ones through some linear equations chosen from A.For example,if A contains i3 = i1 + 2i2 and i4 = i2 i1 + 1,then a clause of the input to 4-SAT(2,A) has the form yi1 ∨ yi2 ∨ yi1+2i2 ∨ yi2 i1+1,with yi being xi or xi.We obtain the following results: 1) If m 2,then for any set A of linear constraints,the restricted problem k-SAT(m,A) is either in P or NP-complete assuming P = NP.Moreover,the corresponding #SAT problem is always #P-complete,and the Max-SAT problem does not allow a polynomial time approximation scheme assuming P = NP.2) m = 1,that is,in every clause only one index can be chosen freely.In this case,we develop a general framework together with some techniques for designing polynomial-time algorithms for the restricted SAT problems.Using these,we prove that for any A,#2-SAT(1,A) and Max-2-SAT(1,A) are both polynomial-time solvable,which is in sharp contrast with the hardness results of general #2-SAT and Max-2-SAT.For fixed k 3,we obtain a large class of non-trivial constraints A,under which the problems k-SAT(1,A),#k-SAT(1,A) and Max-k-SAT(1,A) can all be solved in polynomial time or quasi-polynomial time.     

一个可行的RSA密码破译方法

通过长年研究得到了快速高效的Hamilton路算法。利用多项式规约将3SAT问题转化为对Hamilton路的求解。尽管国际上已有过如何将3SAT问题转化为Hamilton路的方法,但那只是为了证明Hamilton路的NP完全性,因而只要求转化的结果是多项式,而不注重转化效率。为了得到将3SAT直接转化为Hamilton路的高效转化方法,以便有可能通过对后者的高效计算来实现高效计算3SAT,采取用无向图的两个节点模拟3SAT的一个变量,用13个节点的图形结构来模拟3SAT的一个子式的方法,最终实现了上述转化。该转化所需要的节点数及其边数是最优的。将大数的质因子分解转化为对3SAT的求解,从而最终通过求解Hamilton环达到破译RSA密码之目的。