Israel CS THEORY DAY

Open University of Israel

Division of Computer Science

 

Date: 17.3.08

Speaker: Uriel Feige

Title: How to refute random unsatisfiable formulas.

Abstract:

Refuting unsatisfiable 3CNF formulas is one of the central co-NP-complete problems. We consider the average case complexity of this problem, where the input distributions are those of random and semi-random 3CNF formulas of high density (clauses to variables ratio). The goal is to design efficient algorithms that for almost every unsatisfiable input formula prove that no satisfying assignment exists. We survey some results in this area, and present some of the algorithmic techniques that are used.