Pairs of SAT Assignment in Random Boolean Formulae

Hervé Daudé (1) , Marc Mezard (2) , Thierry Mora (2) , Riccardo Zecchina (3)

1 LATP - Laboratoire d'Analyse, Topologie, Probabilités
2 LPTMS - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques
3 Polito - Politecnico di Torino = Polytechnic of Turin

We investigate geometrical properties of the random K-satisfiability problem using the notion of x-satisfiability: a formula is x-satisfiable if there exist two SAT assignments differing in Nx variables. We show the existence of a sharp threshold for this property as a function of the clause density. For large enough K, we prove that there exists a region of clause density, below the satisfiability threshold, where the landscape of Hamming distances between SAT assignments experiences a gap: pairs of SAT-assignments exist at small x, and around x=1/2, but they donot exist at intermediate values of x. This result is consistent with the clustering scenario which is at the heart of the recent heuristic analysis of satisfiability using statistical physics analysis (the cavity method), and its algorithmic counterpart (the survey propagation algorithm). The method uses elementary probabilistic arguments (first and second moment methods), and might be useful in other problems of computational and physical interest where similar phenomena appear.

Mots clés: satisfiability; clustering

Domaines: Systèmes désordonnés et réseaux de neurones [cond-mat.dis-nn]; Complexité [cs.CC]

Hervé Daudé, Marc Mezard, Thierry Mora, Riccardo Zecchina. Pairs of SAT Assignment in Random Boolean Formulae. Theoretical Computer Science, 2008, 393, pp.260-279. ⟨10.1016/j.tcs.2008.01.005⟩. ⟨hal-00005109v3⟩