We show how one can use certain deterministic algorithms for higher-value constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) to speed up deterministic local search for 3-SAT. This way, we improve the deterministic worst-case running time for 3-SAT to O(1.439^n).
For a finite relational structure A, let CSP(A) denote the CSP instances whose constraint relations are taken from A. The resulting family of problems CSP(A) has been considered heavily in a variety of computational contexts. In this article, we consider this family from the perspective of property testing: given an instance of a CSP and query access to an assignment, one wants to decide whether the assignment satisfies the instance, or is far from so doing. While previous works on this scenario studied concrete templates or restricted classes of structures, this article presents comprehensive…
Raghavendra (STOC 2008) gave an elegant and surprising result: if Khot's Unique Games Conjecture (STOC 2002) is true, then for every constraint satisfaction problem (CSP), the best approximation ratio is attained by a certain simple semidefinite programming and a rounding scheme for it. In this paper, we show that similar results hold for constant-time approximation algorithms in the bounded-degree model. Specifically, we present the followings: (i) For every CSP, we construct an oracle that serves an access, in constant time, to a nearly optimal solution to a basic LP relaxation of the CSP. (…
In a $(k,2)$-Constraint Satisfaction Problem we are given a set of arbitrary constraints on pairs of $k$-ary variables, and are asked to find an assignment of values to these variables such that all constraints are satisfied. The $(k,2)$-CSP problem generalizes problems like $k$-coloring and $k$-list-coloring. In the Unique $(k,2)$-CSP problem, we add the assumption that the input set of constraints has at most one satisfying assignment. Beigel and Eppstein gave an algorithm for $(k,2)$-CSP running in time $O\left(\left(0.4518k\right)^n\right)$ for $k>3$ and $O\left(1.356^n\right)$ for $k=3$, …
Constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) models many important intractable NP-hard problems such as propositional satisfiability problem (SAT). Algorithms with non-trivial upper bounds on running time for restricted SAT with bounded clause length k (k-SAT) can be classified into three styles: DPLL-like, PPSZ-like and Local Search, with local search algorithms having already been generalized to CSP with bounded constraint arity k (k-CSP). We generalize a DPLL-like algorithm in its simplest form and a PPSZ-like algorithm from k-SAT to k-CSP. As far as we know, this is the first attempt to use PPS…
We consider worst case time bounds for NP-complete problems including 3-SAT, 3-coloring, 3-edge-coloring, and 3-list-coloring. Our algorithms are based on a constraint satisfaction (CSP) formulation of these problems. 3-SAT is equivalent to (2,3)-CSP while the other problems above are special cases of (3,2)-CSP; there is also a natural duality transformation from (a,b)-CSP to (b,a)-CSP. We give a fast algorithm for (3,2)-CSP and use it to improve the time bounds for solving the other problems listed above. Our techniques involve a mixture of Davis-Putnam-style backtracking with more sophistica…
We consider worst case time bounds for NP-complete problems including 3-SAT, 3-coloring, 3-edge-coloring, and 3-list-coloring. Our algorithms are based on a constraint satisfaction (CSP) formulation of these problems; 3-SAT is equivalent to (2,3)-CSP while the other problems above are special cases of (3,2)-CSP. We give a fast algorithm for (3,2)-CSP and use it to improve the time bounds for solving the other problems listed above. Our techniques involve a mixture of Davis-Putnam-style backtracking with more sophisticated matching and network flow based ideas.
In this paper, we present a randomized polynomial-time approximation algorithm for k-CSPd. In k-CSPd, we are given a set of predicates of arity k over an alphabet of size d. Our goal is to find an assignment that maximizes the number of satisfied constraints. Our algorithm has approximation factor Omega(kd/d^k) (when k > Ω(log d)). This bound is asymptotically optimal assuming the Unique Games Conjecture. The best previously known algorithm has approximation factor Omega(k log d/d^k). We also give an approximation algorithm for the boolean MAX k-CSP2 problem with a slightly improved approximat…
We give a simple combinatorial algorithm to deterministically approximately count the number of satisfying assignments of general constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs). Suppose that the CSP has domain size $q=O(1)$, each constraint contains at most $k=O(1)$ variables, shares variables with at most $Δ=O(1)$ constraints, and is violated with probability at most $p$ by a uniform random assignment. The algorithm returns in polynomial time in an improved local lemma regime: \[ q^2\cdot k\cdot p\cdotΔ^5\le C_0\quad\text{for a suitably small absolute constant }C_0. \] Here the key term $Δ^5$ improv…
In this paper we introduce "hybrid" Max 2-CSP formulas consisting of "simple clauses", namely conjunctions and disjunctions of pairs of variables, and general 2-variable clauses, which can be any integer-valued functions of pairs of boolean variables. This allows an algorithm to use both efficient reductions specific to AND and OR clauses, and other powerful reductions that require the general CSP setting. We use new reductions introduced here, and recent reductions such as "clause-learning" and "2-reductions" generalized to our setting's mixture of simple and general clauses. Parametrizing an…
An instance of the Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is given by a family of constraints on overlapping sets of variables, and the goal is to assign values from a fixed domain to the variables so that all constraints are satisfied. In the optimization version, the goal is to maximize the number of satisfied constraints. An approximation algorithm for CSP is called robust if it outputs an assignment satisfying a $(1-g(\varepsilon))$-fraction of constraints on any $(1-\varepsilon)$-satisfiable instance, where the loss function $g$ is such that $g(\varepsilon)\rightarrow 0$ as $\varepsilon\ri…
In the Permutation Constraint Satisfaction Problem (Permutation CSP) we are given a set of variables $V$ and a set of constraints C, in which constraints are tuples of elements of V. The goal is to find a total ordering of the variables, $π : V \rightarrow [1,...,|V|]$, which satisfies as many constraints as possible. A constraint $(v_1,v_2,...,v_k)$ is satisfied by an ordering $π$ when $π(v_1)<π(v_2)<...<π(v_k)$. An instance has arity $k$ if all the constraints involve at most $k$ elements. This problem expresses a variety of permutation problems including {\sc Feedback Arc Set} and {\sc Betw…
In the field of constraint satisfaction problems (CSP), promise CSPs are an exciting new direction of study. In a promise CSP, each constraint comes in two forms: "strict" and "weak," and in the associated decision problem one must distinguish between being able to satisfy all the strict constraints versus not being able to satisfy all the weak constraints. The most commonly cited example of a promise CSP is the approximate graph coloring problem--which has recently seen exciting progress [BKO19, WZ20] benefiting from a systematic algebraic approach to promise CSPs based on "polymorphisms," op…
Promise CSPs are a relaxation of constraint satisfaction problems where the goal is to find an assignment satisfying a relaxed version of the constraints. Several well-known problems can be cast as promise CSPs including approximate graph coloring, discrepancy minimization, and interesting variants of satisfiability. Similar to CSPs, the tractability of promise CSPs can be tied to the structure of operations on the solution space called polymorphisms, though in the promise world these operations are much less constrained. Under the thesis that non-trivial polymorphisms govern tractability, pro…
Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is a framework for modeling and solving a variety of real-world problems. Once the problem is expressed as a finite set of constraints, the goal is to find the variables' values satisfying them. Even though the problem is in general NP-complete, there are some approximation and practical techniques to tackle its intractability. One of the most widely used techniques is the Constraint Propagation. It consists in explicitly excluding values or combination of values for some variables whenever they make a given subset of constraints unsatisfied. In this paper…