We present narrowing algorithms for the sortedness and the alldifferent constraint which achieve bound-consistency. The algorithm for the sortedness constraint takes as input 2n intervals X1, . . . , Xn, Y1, . . . , Yn from a linearly ordered set D. Let S denote the set of all tuples t ∈ X1 × · · · × Xn × Y1 × · · · × Yn such that the last n components of t are obtained by sorting the first n c...

We apply classical algorithms for approximately solving constraint satisfaction problems to find bounds on extremal eigenvalues of local Hamiltonians. We consider spin Hamiltonians for which we have an upper bound on the number of terms in which each spin participates, and find extensive bounds for the operator norm and ground-state energy of such Hamiltonians under this constraint. In each cas...

A new upper bound is presented for the computational complexity of the parsing problem for TAGs, under the constraint that input is read from left to right in such a way that errors in the input are observed as soon as possible, which is called the "correct-prefix property." The former upper bound, O(n9), is now improved to O(n6), which is the same as that of practical parsing algorithms for TA...

We present a high-level approach to array bound check optimization that is neither hampered by recursive functions, nor disabled by the presence of partially redundant checks. Our approach combines a forward analysis to infer precise contextual constraint at designated program points, and a backward method for deriving a safety pre-condition for each bound check. Both analyses are formulated wi...

In this paper, we consider Constraint Optimization Problems in a Resource-Bounded context. We observe that both exact and approximate methods produce only an anytime upper bound of the optimum (in case of minimization). No lower bound, and thus no quality is available at run time. For a meta-reasoning system, it is difficult to reason on the basis of a so poor piece of information. Therefore, w...

Based on constraint database techniques, we present a new approach to software verification. This new approach has some similarity to abstract interpretation that uses various widening operators; therefore, we call the new approach l-u widening. We show that our l-u widening leads to a more precise over-approximation of the invariants in a program than comparable previously proposed widening op...

Recent arguments show that some curvaton field may generate the cosmological curvature perturbation. As the curvaton is independent of the inflaton field, there is a hope that the fine-tunings of inflation models can be cured by the curvaton scenario. More recently, however, D.H.Lyth discussed that there is a strong bound for the Hubble parameter during inflation even if one assumes the curvato...

This paper presents an exact solution method based on a new linearization scheme for the 0-1 Quadratic Knapsack Problem (QKP) which consists of maximizing a quadratic pseudo-Boolean function with non negative coefficients subject to a linear capacity constraint. Contrasting to traditional linearization schemes, our approach only adds one extra variable. We first convert (QKP) into an equivalent...

We consider the classic Kelly gambling problem with general distribution of outcomes, and an additional risk constraint that limits the probability of a drawdown of wealth to a given undesirable level. We develop a bound on the drawdown probability; using this bound instead of the original risk constraint yields a convex optimization problem that guarantees the drawdown risk constraint holds. N...

Multi-agent planning problems with constraints on global resource consumption occur in several domains. Existing algorithms for solving Multi-agent Markov Decision Processes can compute policies that meet a resource constraint in expectation, but these policies provide no guarantees on the probability that a resource constraint violation will occur. We derive a method to bound constraint violat...