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Lightweight dynamic symmetry breaking

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Abstract

Symmetries in constraint problems present an opportunity for reducing search. This paper presents Lightweight Dynamic Symmetry Breaking, an automatic symmetry breaking method that is efficient enough to be used as a default, since it never yields a major slowdown while often giving major performance improvements. This is achieved by automatically exploiting certain kinds of symmetry that are common, can be compactly represented, easily and efficiently processed, automatically detected, and lead to large reductions in search. Moreover, the method is easy to implement and integrate in any constraint system. Experimental results show the method is competitive with the best symmetry breaking methods without risking poor performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Caulfield East, Australia

    Christopher Mears, Maria Garcia de la Banda & Mark Wallace

  2. KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Bart Demoen

Authors
  1. Christopher Mears
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  2. Maria Garcia de la Banda
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  3. Bart Demoen
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  4. Mark Wallace
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Correspondence to Christopher Mears.

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Mears, C., Garcia de la Banda, M., Demoen, B. et al. Lightweight dynamic symmetry breaking. Constraints 19, 195–242 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10601-013-9154-2

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