Abstract
We investigate the complexity of three optimization problems in Boolean propositional logic related to information theory: Given a conjunctive formula over a set of relations, find a satisfying assignment with minimal Hamming distance to a given assignment that satisfies the formula (NearestOtherSolution, NOSol) or that does not need to satisfy it (NearestSolution, NSol). The third problem asks for two satisfying assignments with a minimal Hamming distance among all such assignments (MinSolutionDistance, MSD). For all three problems we give complete classifications with respect to the relations admitted in the formula. We give polynomial time algorithms for several classes of constraint languages. For all other cases we prove hardness or completeness regarding APX, poly-APX, or equivalence to well-known hard optimization problems.
Highlights
We investigate the solution spaces of Boolean constraint satisfaction problems built from atomic constraints by means of conjunction and variable identification
We study three minimization problems in connection with Hamming distance: Given an instance of a constraint satisfaction problem in the form of a generalized conjunctive formula over a set of atomic constraints, the first problem asks to find a satisfying assignment with minimal Hamming distance to a given assignment (NearestSolution, NSol)
The second problem is similar to the first one, but this time the given assignment has to satisfy the formula and we look for another solution with minimal Hamming distance (NearestOtherSolution, NOSol)
Summary
We investigate the solution spaces of Boolean constraint satisfaction problems built from atomic constraints by means of conjunction and variable identification. We study three minimization problems in connection with Hamming distance: Given an instance of a constraint satisfaction problem in the form of a generalized conjunctive formula over a set of atomic constraints, the first problem asks to find a satisfying assignment with minimal Hamming distance to a given assignment (NearestSolution, NSol). Note that for this problem we assume neither that the given assignment satisfies the formula nor that the solution is different from the assignment. Note that the dual problem MaxHammingDistance has been studied in [14]
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