Evaluation of DNF Formulas

TL;DR

This paper investigates the complexity of efficiently evaluating DNF formulas under stochastic conditions, considering both exact and approximate solutions across various cost and distribution scenarios.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the SBFE problem for DNF formulas, including complexity results and approaches for different subclasses and settings.

Findings

Complexity results for SBFE on DNF formulas.

Approximation algorithms for specific subclasses.

Analysis of uniform and arbitrary cost distributions.

Abstract

Stochastic Boolean Function Evaluation (SBFE) is the problem of determining the value of a given Boolean function $f$ on an unknown input $x$, when each bit of $x_i$ of $x$ can only be determined by paying a given associated cost $c_i$. Further, $x$ is drawn from a given product distribution: for each $x_i$, $Prob[x_i=1] = p_i$, and the bits are independent. The goal is to minimize the expected cost of evaluation. Stochastic Boolean Function Evaluation (SBFE) is the problem of determining the value of a given Boolean function $f$ on an unknown input $x$, when each bit of $x_i$ of $x$ can only be determined by paying a given associated cost $c_i$. Further, $x$ is drawn from a given product distribution: for each $x_i$, $Prob[x_i=1] = p_i$, and the bits are independent. The goal is to minimize the expected cost of evaluation. In this paper, we study the complexity of the SBFE problem for classes of DNF formulas. We consider both exact and approximate versions of the problem for subclasses of DNF, for arbitrary costs and product distributions, and for unit costs and/or the uniform distribution.