A semantic framework for preference handling in answer set programming

TL;DR

This paper introduces a semantic framework for managing preferences in answer set programming, offering a uniform approach that enhances understanding and implementation of preference handling.

Contribution

It presents preference preserving consequence operators and fixpoint characterizations, unifying various preference handling approaches under answer set semantics.

Findings

Provides a uniform semantic framework for preferences

Characterizes approaches via order preservation

Offers insights into implementation strategies

Abstract

We provide a semantic framework for preference handling in answer set programming. To this end, we introduce preference preserving consequence operators. The resulting fixpoint characterizations provide us with a uniform semantic framework for characterizing preference handling in existing approaches. Although our approach is extensible to other semantics by means of an alternating fixpoint theory, we focus here on the elaboration of preferences under answer set semantics. Alternatively, we show how these approaches can be characterized by the concept of order preservation. These uniform semantic characterizations provide us with new insights about interrelationships and moreover about ways of implementation.