The Parallel Complexity Of Propagation In Boolean Circuits

Subramanian, Ashok (1995) The Parallel Complexity Of Propagation In Boolean Circuits. In: Information And Computation, 117 (2). pp. 266-275.

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Abstract

We consider the problem of deciding whether the output of a boolean circuit is determined by a partial assignment to its inputs. This problem is easily shown to be hard, i.e., co-Image Image -complete. However, many of the consequences of a partial input assignment may be determined in linear time, by iterating the following step: if we know the values of some inputs to a gate, we can deduce the values of some outputs of that gate. This process of iteratively deducing some of the consequences of a partial assignment is called propagation. This paper explores the parallel complexity of propagation, i.e., the complexity of determining whether the output of a given boolean circuit is determined by propagating a given partial input assignment. We give a complete classification of the problem into those cases that are Image -complete and those that are unlikely to be Image complete.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Information And Computation
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Department/Centre:	Division of Electrical Sciences > Computer Science & Automation
Date Deposited:	30 Nov 2009 08:46
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:30
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/19786

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