Skip to main content

Computational Complexity of Constraint Satisfaction

  • Conference paper
Computation and Logic in the Real World (CiE 2007)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 4497))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The input to a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) consists of a set of variables, each with a domain, and constraints between these variables formulated by relations over the appropriate domains; the question is if there is an assignment of values to the variables that satisfies all constraints. Different algorithmic tasks for CSPs (checking satisfiability, counting the number of solutions, enumerating all solutions) can be used to model many problems in areas such as computational logic, artificial intelligence, circuit design, etc. We will survey results on the complexity of these computational tasks as a function of properties of the allowed constraint relations. Particular attention is paid to the special case of Boolean constraint relations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Allender, E., Bauland, M., Immerman, N., Schnoor, H., Vollmer, H.: The complexity of satisfiability problems: Refining Schaefer’s theorem. In: Jedrzejowicz, J., Szepietowski, A. (eds.) MFCS 2005. LNCS, vol. 3618, pp. 71–82. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Bauland, M., Böhler, E., Creignou, N., Reith, S., Schnoor, H., Vollmer, H.: Quantified constraints: The complexity of decision and counting for bounded alternation. Technical Report 05-025, Electronic Colloqium on Computational Complexity (Submitted for publication 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Börner, F., Bulatov, A., Jeavons, P., Krokhin, A.: Quantified constraints: algorithms and complexity. In: Baaz, M., Makowsky, J.A. (eds.) CSL 2003. LNCS, vol. 2803, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Bauland, M., Chapdelaine, P., Creignou, N., Hermann, M., Vollmer, H.: An algebraic approach to the complexity of generalized conjunctive queries. In: Hoos, H.H., Mitchell, D.G. (eds.) SAT 2004. LNCS, vol. 3542, pp. 30–45. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Böhler, E., Creignou, N., Reith, S., Vollmer, H.: Playing with Boolean blocks, part I: Post’s lattice with applications to complexity theory. ACM-SIGACT Newsletter 34(4), 38–52 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Böhler, E., Creignou, N., Reith, S., Vollmer, H.: Playing with Boolean blocks, part II: Constraint satisfaction problems. ACM-SIGACT Newsletter 35(1), 22–35 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bulatov, A., Dalmau, V.: Towards a dichotomy theorem for the counting constraint satisfaction problem. In: Proceedings Foundations of Computer Science, pp. 562–572. ACM Press, New York (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Böhler, E., Hemaspaandra, E., Reith, S., Vollmer, H.: Equivalence and isomorphism for Boolean constraint satisfaction. In: Bradfield, J.C. (ed.) CSL 2002 and EACSL 2002. LNCS, vol. 2471, pp. 412–426. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Böhler, E., Hemaspaandra, E., Reith, S., Vollmer, H.: The complexity of Boolean constraint isomorphism. In: Dunin-Keplicz, B., Nawarecki, E. (eds.) CEEMAS 2001. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2296, pp. 164–175. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Bulatov, A., Jeavons, P., Krokhin, A.: Classifying the complexity of constraints using finite algebras. SIAM Journal on Computing 34(3), 720–742 (2005)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Bodnarchuk, V.G., Kalužnin, L.A., Kotov, V.N., Romov, B.A.: Galois theory for Post algebras. I, II. Cybernetics, 5 pp. 243–252, pp. 531–539 (1969)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Böhler, E., Reith, S., Schnoor, H., Vollmer, H.: Bases for Boolean co-clones. Information Processing Letters 96, 59–66 (2005)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Bulatov, A.A.: A dichotomy theorem for constraint satisfaction problems on a 3-element set. Journal of the ACM 53(1), 66–120 (2006)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Creignou, N., Hermann, M.: Complexity of generalized satisfiability counting problems. Information and Computation 125, 1–12 (1996)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Creignou, N., Hébrard, J.-J.: On generating all solutions of generalized satisfiability problems. Informatique Théorique et Applications/Theoretical Informatics and Applications 31(6), 499–511 (1997)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Chen, H.: A rendezvous of logic, complexity, and algebra. ACM-SIGACT Newsletter 37(4), 85–114 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Creignou, N., Khanna, S., Sudan, M.: Complexity Classifications of Boolean Constraint Satisfaction Problems. Monographs on Discrete Applied Mathematics. SIAM (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Creignou, N., Kolaitis, P., Vollmer, H. (eds.): Complexity of Constraints. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Cook, S.A.: The complexity of theorem proving procedures. In: Proceedings 3rd Symposium on Theory of Computing, pp. 151–158. ACM Press, New York (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Dalmau, V.: Some dichotomy theorems on constant-free quantified boolean formulas. Technical Report LSI-97-43-R, Department de Llenguatges i Sistemes Informàtica, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Dalmau, V.: Computational complexity of problems over generalized formulas. PhD thesis, Department de Llenguatges i Sistemes Informàtica, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Feder, T., Vardi, M.Y.: The computational structure of monotone monadic SNP and constraint satisfaction: a study through Datalog and group theory. SIAM Journal on Computing 28(1), 57–104 (1998)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Geiger, D.: Closed systems of functions and predicates. Pac. J. Math 27(2), 228–250 (1968)

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Hemaspaandra, E.: Dichotomy theorems for alternation-bounded quantified boolean formulas. CoRR, cs.CC/0406006 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Jeavons, P.G., Cohen, D.A., Gyssens, M.: Closure properties of constraints. Journal of the ACM 44(4), 527–548 (1997)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. Kleine Büning, H., Lettmann, T.: Propositional Logic: Deduction and Algorithms. In: Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Kolaitis, P., Vardi, M.: A logical approach to constraint satisfaction. In: Finite Model Theory and its Applications, Texts in Theoretical Computer Science, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Lau, D.: Function Algebras on Finite Sets. In: Monographs in Mathematics, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Meyer, A.R., Stockmeyer, L.J.: The equivalence problem for regular expressions with squaring requires exponential time. In: Proceedings 13th Symposium on Switching and Automata Theory, pp. 125–129. IEEE Computer Society Press, Washington (1972)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  30. Papadimitriou, C.H.: Computational Complexity. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1994)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  31. Pippenger, N.: Theories of Computability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  32. Post, E.L.: Determination of all closed systems of truth tables. Bulletin of the AMS 26, 437 (1920)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Post, E.L.: The two-valued iterative systems of mathematical logic. Annals of Mathematical Studies 5, 1–122 (1941)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  34. Reingold, O.: Undirected st-connectivity in log-space. In: Proceedings of the 37th Symposium on Theory of Computing, pp. 376–385. ACM Press, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Schaefer, T.J.: The complexity of satisfiability problems. In: Proccedings 10th Symposium on Theory of Computing, pp. 216–226. ACM Press, New York (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Stockmeyer, L.J., Meyer, A.R.: Word problems requiring exponential time. In: Proceedings 5th ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, pp. 1–9. ACM Press, New York (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Schnoor, H., Schnoor, I.: Enumerating all solutions for constraint satisfaction problems. In: 24nd Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, pp. 694–705 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Wrathall, C.: Complete sets and the polynomial-time hierarchy. Theoretical Computer Science 3, 23–33 (1977)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Vollmer, H. (2007). Computational Complexity of Constraint Satisfaction. In: Cooper, S.B., Löwe, B., Sorbi, A. (eds) Computation and Logic in the Real World. CiE 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4497. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73001-9_80

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73001-9_80

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-73000-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-73001-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics