Minimum equivalent precedence relation systems

In this paper two related simplification problems for systems of linear inequalities describing precedence relation systems are considered. Given a precedence relation system, the first problem seeks a minimum subset of the precedence relations (i.e., inequalities) which has the same solution set as that of the original system. The second problem is the same as the first one except that the “subset restriction” in the first problem is removed. This paper establishes that the first problem is NP-hard. However, a sufficient condition is provided under which the first problem is solvable in polynomial-time. In addition, a decomposition of the first problem into independent tractable and intractable subproblems is derived. The second problem is shown to be solvable in polynomial-time, with a full parameterization of all solutions described. The results in this paper generalize those in Moyles and Thompson (1969) and Aho et al. (1972) for the minimum equivalent graph problem and transitive reduction problem.