The scaling window of the 2‐SAT transition

Abstract We consider the random 2‐satisfiability (2‐SAT) problem, in which each instance is a formula that is the conjunction of m clauses of the form x ∨ y , chosen uniformly at random from among all 2‐clauses on n Boolean variables and their negations. As m and n tend to infinity in the ratio m / n →α, the problem is known to have a phase transition at α c =1, below which the probability that the formula is satisfiable tends to one and above which it tends to zero. We determine the finite‐size scaling about this transition, namely the scaling of the maximal window W ( n , δ)=(α − ( n ,δ), α + ( n ,δ)) such that the probability of satisfiability is greater than 1−δ for α<α − and is less than δ for α>α + . We show that W ( n ,δ)=(1−Θ( n −1/3 ), 1+Θ( n −1/3 )), where the constants implicit in Θ depend on δ. We also determine the rates at which the probability of satisfiability approaches one and zero at the boundaries of the window. Namely, for m =(1+ε) n , where ε may depend on n as long as |ε| is sufficiently small and |ε| n 1/3 is sufficiently large, we show that the probability of satisfiability decays like exp(−Θ( n ε 3 )) above the window, and goes to one like 1−Θ( n −1 |ε| −3 below the window. We prove these results by defining an order parameter for the transition and establishing its scaling behavior in n both inside and outside the window. Using this order parameter, we prove that the 2‐SAT phase transition is continuous with an order parameter critical exponent of 1. We also determine the values of two other critical exponents, showing that the exponents of 2‐SAT are identical to those of the random graph. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 18: 201–256 2001