Topology is relevant (in a dichotomy conjecture for infinite-domain constraint satisfaction problems)

Article Number
8785883
Citation
Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (2019)
Contribution to Conference
Symposium on Logic in Computer Science 2019  
Publisher DOI
10.1109/LICS.2019.8785883
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85070783940
The algebraic dichotomy conjecture for Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs) of reducts of (infinite) finitely bounded homogeneous structures states that such CSPs are polynomial-time tractable when the model-complete core of the template has a pseudo-Siggers polymorphism, and NP-complete otherwise. One of the important questions related to this conjecture is whether, similarly to the case of finite structures, the condition of having a pseudo-Siggers polymorphism can be replaced by the condition of having polymorphisms satisfying a fixed set of identities of height 1, i.e., identities which do not contain any nesting of functional symbols. We provide a negative answer to this question by constructing for each non-trivial set of height 1 identities a structure whose polymorphisms do not satisfy these identities, but whose CSP is tractable nevertheless. An equivalent formulation of the dichotomy conjecture characterizes tractability of the CSP via the local satisfaction of nontrivial height 1 identities by polymorphisms of the structure. We show that local satisfaction and global satisfaction of nontrivial height 1 identities differ for ω -categorical structures with less than double exponential orbit growth, thereby resolving one of the main open problems in the algebraic theory of such structures.