106 Problem reduction

Definition 4-3:

A CSP P is adaptive-consistent under a total-ordering of its variables if for

all variables x, there exists a constraint CS on the parents of x (S), and every
compound label in CS satisfies all the relevant constraints on S.

∀ csp((Z, D, C)): (∀ <: total_ordering(Z, <):

(adaptive-consistent((Z, D, C), <) ≡
(∀ x ∈ Z: (S = {y | y < x ∧ ∃ CS' ∈ C: x, y ∈ S'} ⇒
∃ CS ∈ C: ∀ cl ∈ CS: satisfies(cl, CE(S, (Z, D, C))))))) ■

The concept of backtrack-free search involves an ordering of the variables

(Definitions 1-28, 1-29). To achieve adaptive-consistency, the variables are proc-
essed according to the reverse of this ordering. For each variable x that is being
processed, a k-constraint is created for its Parents, where k is the cardinality of x’s
parents in the primal graph. Compound labels in this constraint which are either
incompatible with each other or incompatible with all the values in Dx are removed.
Then edges are added between all pairs of nodes in the parents in the primal graph.
Figure 4.3 shows the change of an example primal graph during the achievement of
adaptive-consistency. The following is the pseudo code for achieving adaptive-con-
sistency:

PROCEDURE Adaptive_consistency(Z, D, C, <)

/* xi denotes the i-th variable in Z according to the ordering < */
BEGIN
FOR i = Z to 1 by −1 DO
BEGIN
S ← {w | w ∈ Z ∧ w < xi ∧ (∃ CX ∈ C: w, xi ∈ X)};
CS ← {cl | cl = compound label for S such that ∃ vi ∈ D x :
i
satisfies(cl+<xi,vi>, CE(S + {xi}, (Z, D, C)))};
C ← C + {CS};
END;
return(Z, D, C, <);
END /* of Adaptive_consistency */

The Adaptive_consistency procedure assumes that the variables are given the order-
ing x1, x2, ..., xn, where n is the number of variables in the problem. These variables
are processed in reverse order. When xi is processed, the procedure removes from
the constraint for the parents of xi all those compound labels which either violate
some constraints on the parents or have no compatible values in xi. Therefore, this