随机算法 (Fall 2011)/Max-SAT

MAX-SAT

Suppose that we have a number of boolean variables [math]\displaystyle{ x_1,x_2,\ldots,\in\{\mathrm{true},\mathrm{false}\} }[/math]. A literal is either a variable [math]\displaystyle{ x_i }[/math] itself or its negation [math]\displaystyle{ \neg x_i }[/math]. A logic expression is a conjunctive normal form (CNF) if it is written as the conjunction(AND) of a set of clauses, where each clause is a disjunction(OR) of literals. For example:

[math]\displaystyle{ (x_1\vee \neg x_2 \vee \neg x_3)\wedge (\neg x_1\vee \neg x_3)\wedge (x_1\vee x_2\vee x_4)\wedge (x_4\vee \neg x_3)\wedge (x_4\vee \neg x_1). }[/math]

The satisfiability (SAT) problem is that given as input a CNF formula decide whether the CNF is satisfiable, i.e. there exists an assignment of variables to the values of true and false so that all clauses are true. SAT is the first problem known to be NP-complete (the Cook-Levin theorem).

We consider the the optimization version of SAT, which ask for an assignment that the number of satisfied clauses is maximized.

Problem (MAX-SAT)

Given a conjunctive normal form (CNF) formula of [math]\displaystyle{ m }[/math] clauses defined on [math]\displaystyle{ n }[/math] boolean variables [math]\displaystyle{ x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_n }[/math], find a truth assignment to the boolean variables that maximizes the number of satisfied clauses.

The Probabilistic Method

A straightforward way to solve Max-SAT is to uniformly and independently assign each variable a random truth assignment. The following theorem is proved by the probabilistic method.

Theorem

For any set of [math]\displaystyle{ m }[/math] clauses, there is a truth assignment that satisfies at least [math]\displaystyle{ \frac{m}{2} }[/math] clauses.

Proof. For each variable, independently assign a random value in [math]\displaystyle{ \{\mathrm{true},\mathrm{false}\} }[/math] with equal probability. For the [math]\displaystyle{ i }[/math]th clause, let [math]\displaystyle{ X_i }[/math] be the random variable which indicates whether the [math]\displaystyle{ i }[/math]th clause is satisfied. Suppose that there are [math]\displaystyle{ k }[/math] literals in the clause. The probability that the clause is satisfied is [math]\displaystyle{ \Pr[X_k=1]\ge(1-2^{-k})\ge\frac{1}{2} }[/math]. Let [math]\displaystyle{ X=\sum_{i=1}^m X_i }[/math] be the number of satisfied clauses. By the linearity of expectation, [math]\displaystyle{ \mathbf{E}[X]=\sum_{i=1}^{m}\mathbf{E}[X_i]\ge \frac{m}{2}. }[/math] Therefore, there exists an assignment such that at least [math]\displaystyle{ \frac{m}{2} }[/math] clauses are satisfied. [math]\displaystyle{ \square }[/math]