SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 1309.0029

A Canonical Partition of the Primes of Logic Functions

Abstract

This paper presents algorithms that relate to the problem of finding a minimum-cost sum-of-primes representation of a Boolean function f when the cost function C is positive and additive. A set of primes whose sum equals f is called a basis for f, so a solution to the problem is a minimum-cost basis. The algorithms construct the following canonical partition of the complete set of primes and identify the members of sets 1, 2, and 3: (1) Essential Primes, which must be part of any basis for f, (2) Unnecessary Primes that cannot be part of a minimum-cost basis for f for any positive additive cost function, (3) Unique disjoint sets of primes, PS1,...,PSN with associated "covering" tables TS1,..., TSN such that any minimum-cost basis consists of the union of the sets Essential Primes, QS1(C), ..., QSN(C) where QSi(C) is contained in PSi and QSi(C) is a minimum-cost "cover" for PSi. Covering is defined by operation Cascade(QS, TS), which has the property that QS covers PS if and only if Cascade(QS, TS) is empty. The key to the results is the study of objects called Ancestor Sets. The Ancestor Theorem proves that if A is an Ancestor Set for f, every minimum-cost basis includes a minimum-cost cover for the set of primes PS in Ancestor Set A and a minimum-cost cover for the set of primes that are not in A (and are not covered by the the union of the Essentials with PS). The PSi in the partition are the sets of primes in canonical disjoint Independent Ancestor Sets Ai, which are easy to generate when the calculation of the primes (and their consensus combinations) is within computational scope. The paper also presents a condition under which QSi(C) can be easily determined, and another condition such that PSi can be broken into disjoint pieces that can be minimized separately.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Sidnie Feit. 2014-07-31. A Canonical Partition of the Primes of Logic Functions. https://arxiv.org/abs/1309.0029

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Balanced even cycles in signed graphs:Tur\'an bounds, double covers, and parity obstructions

We study Tur\'an problems for balanced even cycles in simple signed graphs, where signed subgraphs are considered up to switching. For every balanced bipartite signed graph, the signed and ordinary Tur\'an numbers differ by at most a factor of two. Our main structural results concern the underlying graphs that admit a signing in which every $2k$-cycle is unbalanced. We characterize these graphs by the absence of an odd dependence among their $2k$-cycle incidence vectors, give a cohomological formulation, and construct subgraph-minimal obstructions of arbitrarily large order. In particular, there is no finite forbidden-subgraph characterization. We also give an exact closed-walk criterion for cycles in double covers and derive a direct signed breadth-first-search upper bound. As applications, we prove \[ \hex(n,C_{+4})=\left(\frac{\sqrt2}{2}+o(1)\right)n^{3/2} \] and study the signed hexagon number $R_6(n)=\hex(n,\{C_{-3},C_{+6}\})$. We characterize the underlying graphs counted by $R_6$ and express it as an extremal problem for ordinary $C_6$-free graphs with a prescribed involution. For every sufficiently large $n$, we construct examples with $\Omega(n^{4/3})$ edges, and we give an equivariant construction attaining the coefficient obtained from the F\"uredi--Naor--Verstra\"ete lower bound by double-cover transfer. Finally, we give $n$-vertex $C_{+10}$-free signed graphs with $\Omega(n^{6/5})$ edges and use octagon examples to illustrate the limitations of theta-freeness as a signing criterion.

math.CO

Fractional DP-colorings of $d$-degenerate locally sparse graphs

Bernshteyn, Kostochka, and Zhu (2020) introduced the notion of fractional DP-coloring, which generalizes both fractional coloring and fractional list coloring. Among several foundational results, they proved that every $d$-degenerate bipartite graph $G$ satisfies $\chi_f^{\mathrm{DP}} \le (1 + o(1))\frac{d}{\log d}$, and that this bound is optimal---a stark contrast to ordinary fractional coloring. In this paper, we extend this upper bound to all $d$-degenerate triangle-free graphs, proving that $\chi_f^{\mathrm{DP}} \le (4 + o(1))\frac{d}{\log d}$. This generalizes a recent result of Martinsson and Steiner (2025) for ordinary fractional coloring. We derive this result as a corollary of a more general upper bound concerning locally sparse graph orderings. Specifically, a $d$-degenerate graph $G$ is left $k$-locally-sparse if it admits a degeneracy ordering in which, for every vertex $v$, the subgraph induced by its back-neighbors contains at most $k$ edges. We show that if a $d$-degenerate graph $G$ is left $\frac{d^2}{f}$-locally-sparse, then \[ \chi_f^{\mathrm{DP}}(G) \le (8 + o(1))\frac{d}{\log f}. \] This immediately yields an identical upper bound on the ordinary fractional chromatic number $\chi_f(G)$, improving upon the leading constants of previously known bounds. Additionally, we establish the asymptotic sharpness of this result up to the leading constant. For any $1 \ll f \le d^2$, we construct $d$-degenerate graphs that are left $\frac{d^2}{f}$-locally-sparse and satisfy $\chi_f(G) \ge (1 - o(1))\frac{d}{\log f}$. Finally, as applications of our main theorem, we obtain improved upper bounds on the fractional DP-chromatic number of $d$-degenerate $K_{1,t,t}$-free graphs, as well as $K_{t,t,t}$-free graphs with maximum degree $\Delta$. Notably, these bounds improve upon existing results even in the setting of ordinary fractional coloring.

math.CO

Erd\H{o}s-S\'{o}s for digraphs

It is shown that every Eulerian digraph on $n$ vertices with more than $(t-1)n$ arcs contains every oriented tree with $t$ edges. The digraphs have no loops or repeated arcs, but opposite arcs are permitted. The bound is sharp for each fixed oriented tree, as witnessed by disjoint unions of complete bidirected graphs. Previously, such tight bounds were not known, even just for directed paths. This can be considered as a directed analog of the recently proved Erd\H{o}s-S\'os conjecture. The result was proved by GPT-6 Astra.

math.CO