We show that the problem of deciding for a given finite relation algebra A whether the network satisfaction problem for A can be solved by the k-consistency procedure, for some k ∈ ℕ, is undecidable. For the important class of finite relation algebras A with a normal representation, however, the decidability of this problem remains open. We show that if A is symmetric and has a flexible atom, then the question whether NSP(A) can be solved by k-consistency, for some k ∈ ℕ, is decidable (even in polynomial time in the number of atoms of A). This result follows from a more general sufficient condition for the correctness of the k-consistency procedure for finite symmetric relation algebras. In our proof we make use of a result of Alexandr Kazda about finite binary conservative structures.
@InProceedings{bodirsky_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2023.116, author = {Bodirsky, Manuel and Kn\"{a}uer, Simon}, title = {{Network Satisfaction Problems Solved by k-Consistency}}, booktitle = {50th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2023)}, pages = {116:1--116:20}, series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)}, ISBN = {978-3-95977-278-5}, ISSN = {1868-8969}, year = {2023}, volume = {261}, editor = {Etessami, Kousha and Feige, Uriel and Puppis, Gabriele}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik}, address = {Dagstuhl, Germany}, URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2023.116}, URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-181680}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2023.116}, annote = {Keywords: Constraint Satisfaction, Computational Complexity, Relation Algebras, Network Satisfaction, Qualitative Reasoning, k-Consistency, Datalog} }
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