Network Satisfaction for Symmetric Relation Algebras with a Flexible Atom

No. 7: AAAI-21 Technical Tracks 7

Volume

Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 35

AAAI Technical Track on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning

Robin Hirsch posed in 1996 the Really Big Complexity Problem: classify the computational complexity of the network satisfaction problem for all finite relation algebras A. We provide a complete classification for the case that A is symmetric and has a flexible atom; the problem is in this case NP-complete or in P. If a finite integral relation algebra has a flexible atom, then it has a normal representation B. We can then study the computational complexity of the network satisfaction problem of A using the universal-algebraic approach, via an analysis of the polymorphisms of B. We also use a Ramsey-type result of Nešetřil and Rödl and a complexity dichotomy result of Bulatov for conservative finite-domain constraint satisfaction problems.

10.1609/aaai.v35i7.16773