12th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI'00)
Local minimum structures of graph-coloring problems for stochastic constraint satisfaction algorithms
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
November 13-November 15
ISBN: 0-7695-0909-6
Abstract: Many stochastic search algorithms developed to solve large-scale constraint satisfaction problems in a practical time have the drawback of becoming stuck in locally minimal solutions which are not acceptable as solutions. We analyze a stochastic search algorithm from the viewpoint of local constraint structures of local minima. Using the graph-coloring problem with three colors, we studied the local graph structures around which concurrent conflicts arise. We present a key constraint structure, an LM pair; which may make up a local minimum, clarifying the mechanism of how conflicted coloring in an LM pair hinders stepwise refinement of hill-climbing. Experimental results show that LM pairs are strongly correlated with the search efficiency of the stochastic search algorithm.
Index Terms:
constraint theory; operations research; graph colouring; stochastic programming; local minimum structures; graph-coloring problems; stochastic constraint satisfaction; stochastic search algorithms; large-scale constraint satisfaction problems; locally minimal solutions; local constraint structures; local minima; graph-coloring problem; LM pair; stepwise refinement; hill-climbing
Citation:
F. Mizuno, S. Nishihara, "Local minimum structures of graph-coloring problems for stochastic constraint satisfaction algorithms," ictai, pp.0366, 12th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI'00), 2000