Symmetries and lazy clause generation

Abstract

Lazy clause generation is a powerful approach to reducing search in constraint programming. This is achieved by recording sets of domain restrictions that previously led to failure as new clausal propagators. Symmetry breaking approaches are also powerful methods for reducing search by recognizing that parts of the search tree are symmetric and do not need to be explored. In this paper we show how we can successfully combine symmetry breaking methods with lazy clause generation. Further, we show that the more precise nogoods generated by a lazy clause solver allow our combined approach to exploit redundancies that cannot be exploited via any previous symmetry breaking method, be it static or dynamic.