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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.25

On the Interplay of Cube Learning and Dependency Schemes in {QCDCL} Proof Systems

Authors: Abhimanyu Choudhury and Meena Mahajan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)

Abstract

Quantified Conflict Driven Clause Leaning (QCDCL) is one of the main approaches to solving Quantified Boolean Formulas (QBF). Cube-learning is employed in this approach to ensure that true formulas can be verified. Dependency Schemes help to detect spurious dependencies that are implied by the variable ordering in the quantifier prefix of QBFs but are not essential for constructing (counter)models. This detection can provably shorten refutations in specific proof systems, and is expected to speed up runs of QBF solvers. The simplest underlying proof system [BeyersdorffBöhm-LMCS2023], formalises the reasoning in the QCDCL approach on false formulas, when neither cube-learning nor dependency schemes is used. The work of [BöhmPeitlBeyersdorff-AI2024] further incorporates cube-learning. The work of [ChoudhuryMahajan-JAR2024] incorporates a limited use of dependency schemes, but without cube-learning. In this work, proof systems underlying the reasoning of QCDCL solvers which use cube learning, and which use dependency schemes at all stages, are formalised. Sufficient conditions for soundness and completeness are presented, and it is shown that using the standard and reflexive resolution path dependency schemes (𝙳^{std} and 𝙳^{rrs}) to relax the decision order provably shortens refutations. When the decisions are restricted to follow quantification order, but dependency schemes are used in propagation and learning, in conjunction with cube-learning, the resulting proof systems using the dependency schemes 𝙳^{std} and 𝙳^{rrs} are investigated in detail and their relative strengths are analysed.

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Abhimanyu Choudhury and Meena Mahajan. On the Interplay of Cube Learning and Dependency Schemes in {QCDCL} Proof Systems. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 25:1-25:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{choudhury_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.25,
  author =	{Choudhury, Abhimanyu and Mahajan, Meena},
  title =	{{On the Interplay of Cube Learning and Dependency Schemes in \{QCDCL\} Proof Systems}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{25:1--25:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.25},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-251062},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.25},
  annote =	{Keywords: QBF, CDCL, Resolution, Dependency schemes}
}

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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2023.38

Dependency Schemes in CDCL-Based QBF Solving: A Proof-Theoretic Study

Authors: Abhimanyu Choudhury and Meena Mahajan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 284, 43rd IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2023)

Abstract

In Quantified Boolean Formulas QBFs, dependency schemes help to detect spurious or superfluous dependencies that are implied by the variable ordering in the quantifier prefix but are not essential for constructing countermodels. This detection can provably shorten refutations in specific proof systems, and is expected to speed up runs of QBF solvers. The proof system QCDCL recently defined by Beyersdorff and Böhm (LMCS 2023) abstracts the reasoning employed by QBF solvers based on conflict-driven clause-learning (CDCL) techniques. We show how to incorporate the use of dependency schemes into this proof system, either in a preprocessing phase, or in the propagations and clause learning, or both. We then show that when the reflexive resolution path dependency scheme 𝙳^rrs is used, a mixed picture emerges: the proof systems that add 𝙳^rrs to QCDCL in these three ways are not only incomparable with each other, but are also incomparable with the basic QCDCL proof system that does not use 𝙳^rrs at all, as well as with several other resolution-based QBF proof systems. A notable fact is that all our separations are achieved through QBFs with bounded quantifier alternation.

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Abhimanyu Choudhury and Meena Mahajan. Dependency Schemes in CDCL-Based QBF Solving: A Proof-Theoretic Study. In 43rd IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 284, pp. 38:1-38:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{choudhury_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2023.38,
  author =	{Choudhury, Abhimanyu and Mahajan, Meena},
  title =	{{Dependency Schemes in CDCL-Based QBF Solving: A Proof-Theoretic Study}},
  booktitle =	{43rd IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2023)},
  pages =	{38:1--38:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-304-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{284},
  editor =	{Bouyer, Patricia and Srinivasan, Srikanth},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2023.38},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-194116},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2023.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: QBF, CDCL, Resolution, Dependency schemes}
}

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Documents authored by Choudhury, Abhimanyu

On the Interplay of Cube Learning and Dependency Schemes in {QCDCL} Proof Systems

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Dependency Schemes in CDCL-Based QBF Solving: A Proof-Theoretic Study

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