Symmetry and Satisfiability
Karem A. Sakallah · Frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications · 2009
Symmetry is at once a familiar concept (we recognize it when we see it!) and a profoundly deep mathematical subject. At its most basic, a symmetry is some transformation of an object that leaves the object (or some aspect of the object) unchanged. For example, a square can be transformed in eight different ways that leave it looking exactly the same: the identity “do-nothing” transformation, 3 rotations, and 4 mirror images (or reflections). In the context of decision problems, the presence of symmetries in a problem's search space can frustrate the hunt for a solution by forcing a search algorithm to fruitlessly explore symmetric subspaces that do not contain solutions. Recognizing that such symmetries exist, we can direct a search algorithm to look for solutions only in non-symmetric parts of the search space. In many cases, this can lead to significant pruning of the search space and yield solutions to problems which are otherwise intractable.