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Nondeterministic constraint logic

combinatorial reconfiguration problem

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ30590566
Source-derived summary

In theoretical computer science, nondeterministic constraint logic is a combinatorial system in which an orientation is given to the edges of a weighted undirected graph, subject to certain constraints. One can change this orientation by steps in which a single edge is reversed, subject to the same constraints. This is a form of reversible logic in that each sequence of edge orientation changes can be undone.

Reconfiguration problems for constraint logic, asking for a sequence of moves to connect certain states, connect all states, or reverse a specified edge have been proven to be PSPACE-complete. These hardness results form the basis for proofs that various games and puzzles are PSPACE-hard or PSPACE-complete.

Constraint graphs

In the simplest version of nondeterministic constraint logic, each edge of an undirected graph has weight either one or two. (The weights may also be represented graphically by drawing edges of weight one as red and edges of weight two as blue.) The graph is required to be a cubic graph: each vertex is incident to three edges, and additionally each vertex should be incident to an even number of red edges.

The edges are required to be oriented in such a way that at least two units of weight are oriented towards each vertex: there must be either at least one incoming blue edge, or at least two incoming red edges. An orientation can change by steps in which a single edge is reversed, respecting these constraints.

More general forms of nondeterministic constraint logic allow a greater variety of edge weights, more edges per vertex, and different thresholds for how much incoming weight each vertex must have.

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The public source identifies “Nondeterministic constraint logic” as combinatorial reconfiguration problem. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nondeterministic, constraint and logic.

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This entry incorporates text from Nondeterministic constraint logic” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.