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ASP-Completeness of Hamiltonicity in Grid Graphs, with Applications to Loop Puzzles

Authors MIT Hardness Group, Josh Brunner , Lily Chung , Erik D. Demaine , Della Hendrickson , Andy Tockman

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MIT Hardness Group
  • CSAIL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Josh Brunner
  • CSAIL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Lily Chung
  • CSAIL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Erik D. Demaine
  • CSAIL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Della Hendrickson
  • CSAIL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Andy Tockman
  • CSAIL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Acknowledgements

This paper was initiated during open problem solving in the MIT class on Algorithmic Lower Bounds: Fun with Hardness Proofs (6.5440) taught by Erik Demaine in Fall 2023. We thank the other participants of that class for helpful discussions and providing an inspiring atmosphere. Some figures drawn using SVG Tiler [https://github.com/edemaine/svgtiler].

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MIT Hardness Group, Josh Brunner, Lily Chung, Erik D. Demaine, Della Hendrickson, and Andy Tockman. ASP-Completeness of Hamiltonicity in Grid Graphs, with Applications to Loop Puzzles. In 12th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 291, pp. 23:1-23:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)
https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2024.23

Abstract

We prove that Hamiltonicity in maximum-degree-3 grid graphs (directed or undirected) is ASP-complete, i.e., it has a parsimonious reduction from every NP search problem (including a polynomial-time bijection between solutions). As a consequence, given k Hamiltonian cycles, it is NP-complete to find another; and counting Hamiltonian cycles is #P-complete. If we require the grid graph’s vertices to form a full m × n rectangle, then we show that Hamiltonicity remains ASP-complete if the edges are directed or if we allow removing some edges (whereas including all undirected edges is known to be easy). These results enable us to develop a stronger "T-metacell" framework for proving ASP-completeness of rectangular puzzles, which requires building just a single gadget representing a degree-3 grid-graph vertex. We apply this general theory to prove ASP-completeness of 37 pencil-and-paper puzzles where the goal is to draw a loop subject to given constraints: Slalom, Onsen-meguri, Mejilink, Detour, Tapa-Like Loop, Kouchoku, Icelom; Masyu, Yajilin, Nagareru, Castle Wall, Moon or Sun, Country Road, Geradeweg, Maxi Loop, Mid-loop, Balance Loop, Simple Loop, Haisu, Reflect Link, Linesweeper; Vertex/Touch Slitherlink, Dotchi-Loop, Ovotovata, Building Walk, Rail Pool, Disorderly Loop, Ant Mill, Koburin, Mukkonn Enn, Rassi Silai, (Crossing) Ichimaga, Tapa, Canal View, and Aqre. The last 13 of these puzzles were not even known to be NP-hard. Along the way, we prove ASP-completeness of some simple forms of Tree-Residue Vertex-Breaking (TRVB), including planar multigraphs with degree-6 breakable vertices, or with degree-4 breakable and degree-1 unbreakable vertices.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Theory of computation → Problems, reductions and completeness
Keywords
  • pencil-and-paper puzzles
  • computational complexity
  • parsimony

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