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On Computing Preferred MUSes and MCSes

  • Conference paper
Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing – SAT 2014 (SAT 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 8561))

Abstract

Minimal Unsatisfiable Subsets (MUSes) and Minimal Correction Subsets (MCSes) are essential tools for the analysis of unsatisfiable formulas. MUSes and MCSes find a growing number of applications, that include abstraction refinement in software verification, type debugging, software package management and software configuration, among many others. In some applications, there can exist preferences over which clauses to include in computed MUSes or MCSes, but also in computed Maximal Satisfiable Subsets (MSSes). Moreover, different definitions of preferred MUSes, MCSes and MSSes can be considered. This paper revisits existing definitions of preferred MUSes, MCSes and MSSes of unsatisfiable formulas, and develops a preliminary characterization of the computational complexity of computing preferred MUSes, MCSes and MSSes. Moreover, the paper investigates which of the existing algorithms and pruning techniques can be applied for computing preferred MUSes, MCSes and MSSes. Finally, the paper shows that the computation of preferred sets can have significant impact in practical performance.

This work is partially supported by SFI grant BEACON (09/IN.1/I2618), by FCT grant POLARIS (PTDC/EIA-CCO/123051/2010), and INESC-IDs multiannual PIDDAC funding PEst-OE/EEI/LA0021/2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CASL, University College Dublin, Ireland

    Joao Marques-Silva & Alessandro Previti

  2. IST/INESC-ID, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal

    Joao Marques-Silva

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  1. Joao Marques-Silva
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  2. Alessandro Previti
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Am Fasanengarten 5, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Carsten Sinz

  2. TU Wien, Favoritenstraße 9-11, 1040, Wien, Austria

    Uwe Egly

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Marques-Silva, J., Previti, A. (2014). On Computing Preferred MUSes and MCSes. In: Sinz, C., Egly, U. (eds) Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing – SAT 2014. SAT 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8561. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09284-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09284-3_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09283-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09284-3

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