CCE Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2000

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences

Advisor

Lee J. Leitner

Committee Member

S. Rollins Guild

Committee Member

Sumitra Mukherjee

Abstract

The propositional satisfiability problem (SAT) is a fundamental problem in computer science and combinatorial optimization. A considerable number of prior researchers have investigated SAT, and much is already known concerning limitations of known algorithms for SAT. In particular, some necessary conditions are known, such that any algorithm not meeting those conditions cannot be efficient. This paper reports a research to develop and test a new algorithm that meets the currently known necessary conditions.

In chapter three, we give a new characterization of the convex integer hull of SAT, and two new algorithms for finding strong cutting planes. We also show the importance of choosing which vertex to cut, and present heuristics to find a vertex that allows a strong cutting plane. In chapter four, we describe an experiment to implement a SAT solving algorithm using the new algorithms and heuristics, and to examine their effectiveness on a set of problems. In chapter five, we describe the implementation of the algorithms, and present computational results. For an input SAT problem, the output of the implemented program provides either a witness to the satisfiability or a complete cutting plane proof of satisfiability. The description, implementation, and testing of these algorithms yields both empirical data to characterize the performance of the new algorithms, and additional insight to further advance the theory. We conclude from the computational study that cutting plane algorithms are efficient for the solution of a large class of SAT problems.

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