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Linear-time algorithms for testing the satisfiability of propositional Horn formulae. (English) Zbl 0593.68062

Summary: New algorithms for deciding whether a (propositional) Horn formula is satisfiable are presented. If the Horn formula A contains K distinct propositional letters and if it is assumed that they are exactly \(P_ 1,...,P_ K\), the two algorithms presented in this paper run in time O(N), where N is the total number of occurrences of literals in A. By representing a Horn proposition as a graph, the satisfiability problem can be formulated as a data flow problem, a certain type of pebbling. The difference between the two algorithms presented here is the strategy used for pebbling the graph. The first algorithm is based on the principle used for finding the set of nonterminals of a context-free grammar from which the empty string can be derived. The second algorithm is a graph traversal and uses a ”call-by-need” strategy. This algorithm uses an attribute grammar to translate a propositional Horn formula to its corresponding graph in linear time. Our formulation of the satisfiability problem as a data flow problem appears to be new and suggests the possibility of improving efficiency using parallel processors.

MSC:

68T15 Theorem proving (deduction, resolution, etc.) (MSC2010)
03B35 Mechanization of proofs and logical operations
68Q25 Analysis of algorithms and problem complexity
03D15 Complexity of computation (including implicit computational complexity)
03-04 Software, source code, etc. for problems pertaining to mathematical logic and foundations
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