The Complexity of searching implicit graphs

The standard complexity classes of Complexity Theory do not allow for direct classification of most of the problems solved by heuristic search algorithms. The reason is that, in their standard definition, complexity classes are specifically tailored to explicit, instead of implicit, graphs of state...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Balcázar Navarro, José Luis|||0000-0003-4248-4528
Format: report
Publication Date:1995
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repository:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/82156
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/82156
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Complexity
Succinct representation techniques
Implicit graphs
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica
Description
Summary:The standard complexity classes of Complexity Theory do not allow for direct classification of most of the problems solved by heuristic search algorithms. The reason is that, in their standard definition, complexity classes are specifically tailored to explicit, instead of implicit, graphs of state or problem reduction spaces. But the usual practice works over implicit graphs. To allow for more precise comparisons with standard complexity classes, we introduce here a model for the analysis of algorithms on graphs given by vertex expansion procedures. It is based on previously studied concepts of ``succinct representation'' techniques, and allows us to prove PSPACE-completeness or EXPTIME-completeness of specific, natural problems on implicit graphs, such as those solved by A*, AO*, and other best-first search strategies.