Boolean constraints for a connected component of a graph

Question

Suppose I have an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$, and boolean variables $x_v$ (one for each vertex $v \in V$). These variables select a subset $S \subseteq V$ of vertices, namely the vertices $S=\{v \mid x_v\}$ whose corresponding boolean variable is true.

I want to express the constraint that $S$ is connected, i.e., that the vertices selected by the $x_v$'s form a connected component in $G$. How can I do that, in a way that can be used with a SAT solver or ILP solver?

Equivalently, this can be viewed as enforcing the constraint that all of the vertices in $S$ are reachable from each other, so this can be viewed as how to encode reachability constraints in SAT.

Answer 1

Here is one encoding. Introduce boolean variables $x_{v,i}$, with the intended meaning that $x_{v,i}$ is true if $v$ is selected and $v$ can by reached by a path of length $\le i$ from $s$ (where $s$ is some starting vertex).

You can force the $x_{v,i}$'s to have the desired meaning, by adding the following constraints:

• Exactly one of the $x_{v,0}$'s is true. For a SAT solver, this can be encoded using the methods in Encoding 1-out-of-n constraint for SAT solvers. An ILP solver can encode this directly.

• If $x_{v,i}$ is true, then $x_{v,i+1}$ is true. This can be enforced with the CNF clause $\neg x_{v,i} \lor x_{v,i+1}$ or the linear inequality $x_{v,i} \le x_{v,i+1}$.

• If $x_{v,i+1}$ is true, then there is a $u$ such that $x_{u,i}$ is true and either $u=v$ or $u$ is a neighbor of $v$. This can be enforced with the CNF clause $\neg x_{v,i+1} \lor x_{v,i} \lor x_{u_1,i} \lor \cdots \lor x_{u_k,i}$ where $u_1,\dots,u_k$ are the neighbors of $v$; or with the linear inequality $x_{v,i+1} \le x_{v,i} + x_{u_1,i} + \dots + x_{u_k,i}$.

• $x_v = x_{v,n}$ where $n=|V|$ is the number of vertices in the graph.