The complexity of phylogeny constraint satisfaction

Publikation: Beitrag in Buch/Konferenzbericht/Sammelband/GutachtenBeitrag in KonferenzbandBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

Abstract

We systematically study the computational complexity of a broad class of computational problems in phylogenetic reconstruction. The class contains for example the rooted triple consistency problem, forbidden subtree problems, the quartet consistency problem, and many other problems studied in the bioinformatics literature. The studied problems can be described as constraint satisfaction problems where the constraints have a first-order definition over the rooted triple relation. We show that every such phylogeny problem can be solved in polynomial time or is NP-complete. On the algorithmic side, we generalize a well-known polynomial-time algorithm of Aho, Sagiv, Szymanski, and Ullman for the rooted triple consistency problem. Our algorithm repeatedly solves linear equation systems to construct a solution in polynomial time. We then show that every phylogeny problem that cannot be solved by our algorithm is NP-complete. Our classification establishes a dichotomy for a large class of infinite structures that we believe is of independent interest in universal algebra, model theory, and topology. The proof of our main result combines results and techniques from various research areas: a recent classification of the model-complete cores of the reducts of the homogeneous binary branching C-relation, Leeb's Ramsey theorem for rooted trees, and universal algebra.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Titel33rd Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, STACS 2016
Redakteure/-innenHeribert Vollmer, Nicolas Ollinger
Herausgeber (Verlag)Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing
ISBN (elektronisch)9783959770019
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 1 Feb. 2016
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Publikationsreihe

ReiheLeibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs
Band47
ISSN1868-8969

Konferenz

Titel33rd Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, STACS 2016
Dauer17 - 20 Februar 2016
StadtOrleans
LandFrankreich

Externe IDs

ORCID /0000-0001-8228-3611/work/166763836

Schlagworte

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Schlagwörter

  • Computational complexity, Constraint satisfaction problems, Model theory, Phylogenetic reconstruction, Ramsey theory