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We explore the Collatz conjecture and its variants through the lens of termination of string rewriting. We construct a rewriting system that simulates the iterated application of the Collatz function on strings corresponding to mixed binary–ternary representations of positive integers. We prove that the termination of this rewriting system is equivalent to the Collatz conjecture. We also prove that a previously studied rewriting system that simulates the Collatz function using unary representations does not admit termination proofs via natural matrix interpretations, even when used in conjunction with dependency pairs. To show the feasibility of our approach in proving mathematically interesting statements, we implement a minimal termination prover that uses natural/arctic matrix interpretations and we find automated proofs of nontrivial weakenings of the Collatz conjecture. Although we do not succeed in proving the Collatz conjecture, we believe that the ideas here represent an interesting new approach.

 

We present an exact algorithm for graph coloring and maximum clique problems based on SAT technology. It relies on four sub-algorithms that alternatingly compute cliques of larger size and colorings with fewer colors. We show how these techniques can mutually help each other: larger cliques facilitate finding smaller colorings, which in turn can boost finding larger cliques. We evaluate our approach on the DIMACS graph coloring suite. For finding maximum cliques, we show that our algorithm can improve the state-of-the-art MaxSAT-based solver IncMaxCLQ, and for the graph coloring problem, we close two open instances, decrease two upper bounds, and increase one lower bound. 

We explore the Collatz conjecture and its variants through the lens of termination of string rewriting. We construct a rewriting system that simulates the iterated application of the Collatz function on strings corresponding to mixed binary–ternary representations of positive integers. Termination of this rewriting system is equivalent to the Collatz conjecture. To show the feasibility of our approach in proving mathematically interesting statements, we implement a minimal termination prover that uses the automated method of matrix/arctic interpretations and we perform experiments where we obtain proofs of nontrivial weakenings of the Collatz conjecture. Finally, we adapt our rewriting system to show that other open problems in mathematics can also be approached as termination problems for relatively small rewriting systems. Although we do not succeed in proving the Collatz conjecture, we believe that the ideas here represent an interesting new approach. 

The Hamiltonian Cycle Problem (HCP) consists of two constraints: i) each vertex contributes exactly two edges to the cycle; and ii) there is exactly one cycle. The former can be encoded naturally and compactly, while the encodings of the latter either lack arc consistency or require an exponential number of clauses. We present a new, small encoding for HCP based on the Chinese remainder theorem. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the encoding on challenging HCP instances. 

Mycielski graphs are a family of triangle-free graphs 𝑀_𝑘 with arbitrarily high chromatic number. 𝑀_𝑘 has chromatic number k and there is a short informal proof of this fact, yet finding proofs of it via automated reasoning techniques has proved to be a challenging task. In this paper, we study the complexity of clausal proofs of the uncolorability of 𝑀_𝑘 with 𝑘−1 colors. In particular, we consider variants of the PR (propagation redundancy) proof system that are without new variables, and with or without deletion. These proof systems are of interest due to their potential uses for proof search. As our main result, we present a sublinear-length and constant-width PR proof without new variables or deletion. We also implement a proof generator and verify the correctness of our proof. Furthermore, we consider formulas extended with clauses from the proof until a short resolution proof exists, and investigate the performance of CDCL in finding the short proof. This turns out to be difficult for CDCL with the standard heuristics. Finally, we describe an approach inspired by SAT sweeping to find proofs of these extended formulas. 

We consider three graphs, 𝐺_{7,3}, 𝐺_{7,4}, and 𝐺_{7,6}, related to Keller’s conjecture in dimension 7. The conjecture is false for this dimension if and only if at least one of the graphs contains a clique of size 2^7 = 128. We present an automated method to solve this conjecture by encoding the existence of such a clique as a propositional formula. We apply satisfiability solving combined with symmetry-breaking techniques to determine that no such clique exists. This result implies that every unit cube tiling of ℝ^7 contains a facesharing pair of cubes. Since a faceshare-free unit cube tiling of ℝ^8 exists (which we also verify), this completely resolves Keller’s conjecture.