[hal-01184377] Supermodularity on chains and complexity of maximum constraint satisfaction

In the maximum constraint satisfaction problem (Max CSP), one is given a finite collection of (possibly weighted) constraints on overlapping sets of variables, and the goal is to assign values from a given finite domain to the variables so as to maximise the number (or the total weight) of satisfied constraints. This problem is NP-hard in general so it is natural to study how restricting the allowed types of constraints affects the complexity of the problem. In this paper, we show that any Max CSP problem with a finite set of allowed constraint types, which includes all constants (i.e. constraints of the form x=a), is either solvable in polynomial time or is NP-complete. Moreover, we present a simple description of all polynomial-time solvable cases of our problem. This description uses the well-known combinatorial property of supermodularity.

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