Geometric decision procedures and the VC dimension of linear arithmetic theories

This paper resolves two open problems on linear integer arithmetic (LIA), also known as Presburger arithmetic. First, we give a triply exponential geometric decision procedure for LIA, i.e., a procedure based on manipulating semilinear sets. This matches the running time of the best quantifier elimination and automata-based procedures. Second, building upon our first result, we give a doubly exponential upper bound on the Vapnik–Chervonenkis (VC) dimension of sets definable in LIA, proving a conjecture of D. Nguyen and I. Pak [Combinatorica 39, pp. 923–932, 2019]. These results partially rely on an analysis of sets definable in linear real arithmetic (LRA), and analogous results for LRA are also obtained. At the core of these developments are new decomposition results for semilinear and -semilinear sets, the latter being the sets definable in LRA. These results yield new algorithms to compute the complement of (-)semilinear sets that do not cause a non-elementary blowup when repeatedly combined with procedures for other Boolean operations and projection. The existence of such an algorithm for semilinear sets has been a long-standing open problem.