Gap theorems for robust satisfiability: Boolean CSPs and beyond

TL;DR

This paper establishes a comprehensive classification of the complexity of Boolean constraint satisfaction problems, identifying conditions under which problems are either polynomial-time solvable or NP-complete, and extends these results to non-Boolean domains using algebraic methods.

Contribution

It introduces a Gap Trichotomy Theorem for Boolean CSP variants, providing a complete complexity classification for NP-hard gaps, and develops algebraic techniques to extend these results beyond Boolean domains.

Findings

Classified Boolean CSP variants into polynomial-time or NP-complete.

Established a Gap Trichotomy Theorem for Boolean domains.

Extended algebraic methods to non-Boolean CSPs.

Abstract

A computational problem exhibits a "gap property" when there is no tractable boundary between two disjoint sets of instances. We establish a Gap Trichotomy Theorem for a family of constraint problem variants, completely classifying the complexity of possible ${\bf NP}$-hard gaps in the case of Boolean domains. As a consequence, we obtain a number of dichotomies for the complexity of specific variants of the constraint satisfaction problem: all are either polynomial-time tractable or $\mathbf{NP}$-complete. Schaefer's original dichotomy for $\textsf{SAT}$ variants is a notable particular case. Universal algebraic methods have been central to recent efforts in classifying the complexity of constraint satisfaction problems. A second contribution of the article is to develop aspects of the algebraic approach in the context of a number of variants of the constraint satisfaction problem. In particular, this allows us to lift our results on Boolean domains to many templates on non-Boolean domains.