Some conditions implying if P=NP then P=PSPACE
We identify a few conditions $X$ such that $(P=NP \wedge X) \;\Rightarrow\; P=PSPACE$.
arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ismael Rodriguez.
We identify a few conditions $X$ such that $(P=NP \wedge X) \;\Rightarrow\; P=PSPACE$.
In this work we analyze the problem of, given the probability distribution of a population, questioning an unknown individual that is representative of the distribution so that our uncertainty about certain characteristics is significantly reduced -but the uncertainty about others, deemed private or sensitive, is not. Thus, the goal of the problem is extracting information being relevant to a legitimate purpose while preserving the privacy of individuals, which is crucial to enable non-intrusive selection processes in several areas. For instance, it is essential in the design of non-discriminatory personnel selection, promotion, and layoff processes in companies and institutions; in the retrieval of customer information being relevant to the service provided by a company (and no more); in certifications not revealing sensitive industrial information being irrelevant for the certification itself; etc. Interactive questioning processes are constructed for this purpose, which requires generalizing the notion of decision trees to account the amount of desired and undesired information retrieved for each branch of the plan. Our findings about this problem are both theoretical and practical: on the one hand, we prove its NP-completeness by a reduction from the Set Cover problem; and on the other hand, given this intractability, we provide heuristic solutions to find reasonable solutions in affordable time. In particular, a greedy algorithm and two genetic algorithms are presented. Our experiments indicate that the best results are obtained using a genetic algorithm reinforced with a greedy strategy.
We present a process algebra capable of specifying parallelized Ant Colony Optimization algorithms in full detail: PA$^2$CO. After explaining the basis of three different ACO algorithms (Ant System, MAX-MIN Ant System, and Ant Colony System), we formally define PA$^2$CO and use it for representing several types of implementations with different parallel schemes. In particular fine-grained and coarse-grained specifications, each one taking advantage of parallel executions at different levels of system granularity, are formalized.
We generalize Stochastic Local Search (SLS) heuristics into a unique formal model. This model has two key components: a common structure designed to be as large as possible and a parametric structure intended to be as small as possible. Each heuristic is obtained by instantiating the parametric part in a different way. Particular instances for Genetic Algorithms (GA), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) are presented. Then, we use our model to prove the Turing-completeness of SLS algorithms in general. The proof uses our framework to construct a GA able to simulate any Turing machine. This Turing-completeness implies that determining any non-trivial property concerning the relationship between the inputs and the computed outputs is undecidable for GA and, by extension, for the general set of SLS methods (although not necessarily for each particular method). Similar proofs are more informally presented for PSO and ACO.
In this paper we consider a testing setting where the set of possible definitions of the Implementation Under Test (IUT), as well as the behavior of each of these definitions in all possible interactions, are extensionally defined, i.e., on an element-by-element and case-by-case basis. Under this setting, the problem of finding the minimum testing strategy such that collected observations will necessarily let us decide whether the IUT is correct or not (i.e., whether it necessarily belongs to the set of possible correct definitions or not) is studied in four possible problem variants: with or without non-determinism; and with or without more than one possible definition in the sets of possible correct and incorrect definitions. The computational complexity of these variants is studied, and properties such as PSPACE-completeness and Log-APX-hardness are identified.
When some resources are to be distributed among a set of agents following egalitarian social welfare, the goal is to maximize the utility of the agent whose utility turns out to be minimal. In this context, agents can have an incentive to lie about their actual preferences, so that more valuable resources are assigned to them. In this paper we analyze this situation, and we present a practical study where genetic algorithms are used to assess the benefits of lying under different situations.