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Deciding graph properties by mobile agents

Agents in an anonymous graph must decide together whether their starting configuration has a property, such as "the graph is a tree": which properties can they decide, with what help, and with how little memory?

Problem statement and measuresexpand

\(k \ge 1\) agents start at nodes of a connected undirected graph \(G\) with \(n\) nodes; the nodes are anonymous, and at each node the edges carry distinct port numbers. Each agent has a distinct identifier and an input string, and several agents may start at the same node. The agents move in synchronous rounds, crossing at most one edge per round, cannot mark nodes unless a setting gives whiteboards, and exchange everything they know when they are at the same node; no agent knows anything else in advance. A configuration is the graph with the agents' start nodes and inputs. A decision problem \(\Pi\) is a set of configurations, closed under automorphisms of \(G\) that preserve ports, whose membership a centralised algorithm that sees the whole configuration can decide. The agents decide \(\Pi\) if every agent eventually outputs yes or no, all agents output yes when the configuration is in \(\Pi\), and at least one outputs no when it is not Fraigniaud & Pelc 2017. In verification every agent also receives a certificate: for every configuration in \(\Pi\) some certificate makes all agents output yes, and for every other configuration no certificate does. The question is which decision problems the agents can decide, in particular whether all of them, and with how much memory. Time is in rounds; memory in bits per agent.

Measures: Time, rounds until every agent has decided; Memory, bits per agent.

tight near-optimal polynomial gap unknown impossible· rows follow the assumption tree; each cell: best upper bound vs lower bound, and what forces the lower bound
Setting
Time
Memory
Identifiers + static graph, + undirected
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—
Any number of agents + distinct IDs (eponymous), + local communication, + synchronous
1 open · 0 results
impossible — vs \(\text{impossible}\) locality
impossible — vs —
One agent + one agent
2 open · 0 results
impossible — vs \(\text{impossible}\) locality
impossible — vs —
One agent that knows \(n\) + knows \(n\)
1 open · 0 results
impossible — vs \(\text{impossible}\) symmetry breaking
impossible — vs —
One agent with a map + map
0 open · 1 results
unknown \(\text{finite}\) vs —
unknown — vs —
Any number of agents, with certificates any \(k\), + verify
2 open · 0 results
impossible — vs \(\text{impossible}\) locality
impossible — vs —
Two or more agents that know their number + known \(k \ge 2\)
0 open · 1 results
unknown \(\text{finite}\) vs —
unknown — vs —
One agent with whiteboards and little memory anonymous, no communication, + synchronous, + whiteboards, + one agent
0 open · 1 results
unknown \(\text{poly}(n)\) vs —
tight \(1\) vs \(1\) memory

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