Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2011

Publication Title

Theory and Practice of Logic Programming

Volume

11

Issue

6

First Page

953

Last Page

988

Abstract

Using the notion of an elementary loop, Gebser and Schaub (2005. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning (LPNMR'05), 53–65) refined the theorem on loop formulas attributable to Lin and Zhao (2004) by considering loop formulas of elementary loops only. In this paper, we reformulate the definition of an elementary loop, extend it to disjunctive programs, and study several properties of elementary loops, including how maximal elementary loops are related to minimal unfounded sets. The results provide useful insights into the stable model semantics in terms of elementary loops. For a nondisjunctive program, using a graph-theoretic characterization of an elementary loop, we show that the problem of recognizing an elementary loop is tractable. On the other hand, we also show that the corresponding problem is coNP-complete for a disjunctive program. Based on the notion of an elementary loop, we present the class of Head-Elementary-loop-Free (HEF) programs, which strictly generalizes the class of Head-Cycle-Free (HCF) programs attributable to Ben-Eliyahu and Dechter (1994. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence 12, 53–87). Like an HCF program, an HEF program can be turned into an equivalent nondisjunctive program in polynomial time by shifting head atoms into the body.

Comments

MARTIN GEBSER, JOOHYUNG LEE and YULIYA LIERLER (2011). On elementary loops of logic programs. Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, 11, pp 953-988. doi:10.1017/S1471068411000019. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011. This journal can be found at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=TLP.

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