The complexity of approximating bounded-degree Boolean #CSP

  • Authors:

  • Martin Dyer;Leslie Ann Goldberg;Markus Jalsenius;David Richerby

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Computing, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK;Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK;Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, Merchant Venturers Building, Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK;Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK

  • Venue:
  • Information and Computation
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

The degree of a CSP instance is the maximum number of times that any variable appears in the scopes of constraints. We consider the approximate counting problem for Boolean CSP with bounded-degree instances, for constraint languages containing the two unary constant relations {0} and {1}. When the maximum allowed degree is large enough (at least 6) we obtain a complete classification of the complexity of this problem. It is exactly solvable in polynomial time if every relation in the constraint language is affine. It is equivalent to the problem of approximately counting independent sets in bipartite graphs if every relation can be expressed as conjunctions of {0}, {1} and binary implication. Otherwise, there is no FPRAS unless NP=RP. For lower degree bounds, additional cases arise, where the complexity is related to the complexity of approximately counting independent sets in hypergraphs.