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Clustering of solutions in hard satisfiability problems

John Ardelius1, Erik Aurell2 and Supriya Krishnamurthy3

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We study numerically the solution space structure of random 3-SAT problems close to the SAT/UNSAT transition. This is done by considering chains of satisfiability problems, where clauses are added sequentially to a problem instance. Using the overlap measure of similarity between different solutions found on the same problem instance, we examine geometrical changes as a function of α. In each chain, the overlap distribution is first smooth, but then develops a tiered structure, indicating that the solutions are found in well separated clusters. On chains of not too large instances, all remaining solutions are eventually observed to be found in only one small cluster before vanishing. This condensation transition point is estimated by finite size scaling to be αc = 4.26 with an apparent critical exponent of about 1.7. The average overlap value is also observed to increase with α up to the transition, indicating a reduction in solutions space size, in accordance with theoretical predictions. The solutions are generated by a local heuristic, ASAT, and compared to those found by the Survey Propagation algorithm up to αc.


Keywords

finite-size scaling

random graphs, networks

network dynamics

energy landscapes (experiment)

 

E-print Number: cond-mat/0702672

Cited: by |

Refers: to

PACS

05.40.Fb Random walks and Levy flights

02.60.Gf Algorithms for functional approximation

02.50.Fz Stochastic analysis

05.70.Jk Critical point phenomena

02.50.Ng Distribution theory and Monte Carlo studies

05.70.Fh Phase transitions: general studies

MSC

82B31 Stochastic methods

62H30 Classification and discrimination; cluster analysis (See also 68T10)

82B41 Random walks, random surfaces, lattice animals, etc. (See also 60G50, 82C41)

60G50 Sums of independent random variables; random walks

82B27 Critical phenomena

82B26 Phase transitions (general)

Subjects

Computational physics

Statistical physics and nonlinear systems

Dates

Issue 10 (October 2007)

Received 21 June 2007, accepted for publication 4 October 2007

Published 24 October 2007



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