辅助变元之于命题与量化布尔公式的作用.pdfVIP

Studies in Logic, Vol. 3, No. 3 (2010): 1–23 PII: 1674-3202(2010)-03-0001-23 The Power of Auxiliary Variables for Propositional and Quantified Boolean Formulas∗ Uwe Bubeck Computer Science Institute, University of Paderborn bubeck@upb.de ¨ Hans Kleine Buning Computer Science Institute, University of Paderborn kbcsl@upb.de Abstract. Using auxiliary variables to introduce definitions is a popular and powerful tech- nique in knowledge representation which can lead to shorter and more natural encodings with- out long repetitions. In this paper, we formally define the notion of auxiliary variables and then examine their expressive power and discuss interesting applications. We relate the idea of reusing intermediate results without copying by definitions to similar con- cepts in other representations of Boolean functions. In particular, we show that propositional logic with definitions has essentially the same expressive power as Boolean circuits with arbi- trary fan-out and existentially quantified Boolean formulas in which the bound variables satisfy b the Horn property (called ∃HORN ). The paper also considers restrictions on the structure of definitions and extensions of propo- sitional definitions. In particular, we examine the relationship between positive propositional definitions and positive definitions with existential quantification or, equivalently, the relation- ship between ∃HORNb formulas and existentially quantified CNF formulas without the Horn ∗ restriction on the bound variables (∃CNF )