Recent works on constraint relaxation [Jussien, 1997; Jussien and Boizumault, 1997b] provided the decorum system (Deduction-based Constraint Relaxation Management). That system can be seen as an integration of arc-consistency within the dynamic backtracking algorithm [Ginsberg, 1993]. Dynamic backtracking replaces the backtracking process by a much less blind behavior that consists in local mod...

The min-conflict heuristic (Minton et al. 1992) has been introduced into backtracking algorithms and iterative improvement algorithms as a powerful heuristic for solving constraint satisfaction problems. Backtracking algorithms become inefficient when a bad partial solution is constructed, since an exhaustive search is required for revising the bad decision. On the other hand, iterative improve...

Considering the theoretical hardness of SAT, the astonishing adeptness of SAT solvers when attacking practical problems has changed the way we perceive the limits of algorithmic reasoning. Modern SAT solvers are based on the idea of conflict driven clause learning (CDCL). The CDCL algorithm is a combination of an explicit backtracking search for a satisfying assignment complemented with a deduc...

The only technique available for solving many important problems is searching. Since searching can be extremely costly, it is important to identify features that improve the efficiency of aearch algorithms. We compute the efficiency of simple backtracking, of an algorithm similar to backtracking except that it notices when the predicate is empty instead of noticing when it is unsatlsfiable (the...

The min-con ict heuristic (Minton et al. 1992) has been introduced into backtracking algorithms and iterative improvement algorithms as a powerful heuristic for solving constraint satisfaction problems. Backtracking algorithms become ine cient when a bad partial solution is constructed, since an exhaustive search is required for revising the bad decision. On the other hand, iterative improvemen...

In this dissertation we investigate theoretical aspects of some practical approaches used in solving and understanding search problems. We concentrate on the Satisfiability problem, which is a strong representative from search problem domains. The work develops general theoretical foundations to investigate some practical aspects of satisfiability search. This results in a better understanding ...

Many combinatorial problems can be modeled as 0/1 integer linear programs. Problems expressed in this form are usually solved by Operations Research algorithms, but good results have also been obtained using generalised SAT algorithms based on backtracking or local search, after transformation to pseudo-Boolean form. A third class of SAT algorithm uses non-systematic backtracking to combine con...