Theory of Quantified Boolean Formulas

Abstract

Quantified Boolean formulas (QBF) are a generalization of propositional formulas by allowing universal and existential quantifiers over variables. This enhancement makes QBF a concise and natural modeling language in which problems from many areas, such as planning, scheduling or verification, can often be encoded in a more compact way than with propositional formulas. We introduce in this chapter the syntax and semantics of QBF and present fundamental concepts. This includes normal form transformations and Q-resolution, an extension of the propositional resolution calculus. In addition, Boolean function models are introduced to describe the valuation of formulas and the behavior of the quantifiers. We also discuss the expressive power of QBF and provide an overview of important complexity results. These illustrate that the greater capabilities of QBF lead to more complex problems, which makes it interesting to consider suitable subclasses of QBF. In particular, we give a detailed look at quantified Horn formulas (QHORN) and quantified 2-CNF (Q2-CNF).