Abstract
Replacement rules have played an important role in the study of monotone boolean function complexity. In this paper, notions of replaceability and computational equivalence are formulated in an abstract algebraic setting, and examined in detail for finite distributive lattices — the appropriate algebraic context for monotone boolean functions. It is shown that when computing an element f of a finite distributive lattice D, the elements of D partition into classes of computationally equivalent elements, and define a quotient of D in which all intervals of the form [t∧f, t∨f] are boolean. This quotient is an abstract simplicial complex with respect to ordering by replaceability. Possible applications of computational equivalence in developing upper and lower bounds on monotone boolean function complexity are indicated, and new directions of research, both abstract mathematical and computational, are suggested.
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© 1984 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Beynon, M. (1984). Replacement in monotone Boolean networks: An algebraic perspective. In: Joseph, M., Shyamasundar, R. (eds) Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science. FSTTCS 1984. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 181. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-13883-8_71
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-13883-8_71
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