Consider a source schema S with unary and binary relations and a set of TGDs Sigma over S , we define an equivalence relation on positions of relations of the schema, identifying any two positions R[i] and S[j] whenever there is a TGD τ in Σ and a variable x in τ that occurs at both R[i] and S[j]. In the following, we also denote the classes of equivalence using a position notation.

Below, we present some techniques to complicate the saturation process of TGDs using a binary or unary schema. These techniques always apply an arity blow-up to the TGDs to the positions of a position class, then this blow-up is exploited to complicate the reasoning based on these TGDs.

The blown-up schema for blow-up function B has the same relations as in S, but the arity of a relation $R$ is Σ_{i a position of R} B(R[i])

Given a TGD tau in Sigma and blow-up function B, let B(tau) be the TGD over the blown-up schema obtained by applying $B$ to each atom in tau:

Example: Suppose Sigma contains

tau: R(x,y) S(x) –> exists z R(y, z)

then S[1] R[1] and R[2] are all equivalent. A valid schema blow-up B might map the class with S[1], R[1], R[2] to 3.

The TGD B(tau) over the blown-up schema is:

R(x_1, x_2, x_3, y_1, y_2, y_3) S(x_1, x_2, x_3) –> exists z_1 z_2 z_3 R(y_1, y_2, y_3, z_1 , z_2, z_3)

Remarks:

• the arity blowup does not change the number of TGDs we can derived, since the unifications between TGD heads and body after blowup are isomorphic to the ones we can obtain between TGD heads and bodies before blowup.
• Moreover, blowing up the derived TGDs from Σ returns the set of derived TGDs from blown-up TGDs of Σ.

So in order to make the saturation task more challenging, we need to introduce some complementary TGD modifications. First, we propose to introduce some side atoms for each position, which will complicate the evolve steps. Second, we propose to add permutation on the existential variables introduced by the blow-up of a single position.

To extend the blow-up, we could introduce some side atoms. To do so, we assume that a set of side predicates is available and is disjoint from the predicates in S. We define N a function associating each position R[i] with a side predicate and P a function associating each position R[i] with a list of indexes in {1, …, B(R[i])} of length equals to the arity of N(R[i]). P is used to select the variables used in the side atom of a position among the one available at this position after the blow-up.

For example, on the previous example, we can define:

• N by R[1] –> Q, R[2] –> T, S[1] –> T,
• P by R[1] –> [2,2,3], R[2] –> [1], S[1] –> [3], the resulting TGD will be:

R(x_1, x_2, x_3, y_1, y_2, y_3), Q(x_2, x_2, x_3), T(y_1), S(x_1, x_2, x_3), T(x_3) –> exists z_1 z_2 z_3 R(y_1, y_2, y_3, z_1 , z_2, z_3), Q(y_2, y_2, y_3), T(z_1)

Remarks:

1. Let Σ be a set of TGDs, Σ_s the set of TGDs in Σ to which side atoms have been added and Σ' and Σ_s' the respective set of derived TGDs using one of our saturation algorithm. Σ' is included into Σ_s' to which the side atoms are removed from each TGD. In other words, it states that adding side atoms does not reduce the complexity of the saturation.
2. Instead of adding an side atom for each position, we may add an atom for each position class, meaning that the domain of R and P would be the position classes. It would reduce the number of side atoms added to each TGD, but it would increase the number of pair of TGDs that share a side predicate.
3. While the diversity of possible shape for the side atoms increases with the blow-up arity, the number of derived TGDs from TGDs with side atoms seems independent of the blow-up arity. It is not the case of techniques like variables permutation and unification.

I propose the following parameters for the creation of these side atoms:

1. a parameter for associating the side atoms with the position class instead of the position (default false)
2. the probability of adding a side atom to a position
3. the probability of reusing a side predicate when a new side atom is introduced (default 0)
4. the minimum factor between B(R[i]) and N(R[i])
5. the maximum factor between B(R[i]) and N(R[i])

We introduce variables permutations in the blown-up TGDs, in order to that the number of derived TGDs increases (possibily exponentially) with the arity of the blowing-up i.e. the minimal value taken by B.

For a class of position R[i], we will select T(R[i]) a subset of the transpositions of the indexes of the variables introduced during the blowing-up, meaning the transpositions of {1, …, B(R[i])}. For each TGD τ and each occurrence p of a position of the class R[i] in τ, we build S(τ,p) a permutation of {1, …, B(R[i])} by composing some transpositions from T(R[i]). We replace τ with the TGD obtained by applying S(τ,p) to the indexes of the variables introduced by the blowing-up at the position p only. We continue by consecutively permutate the variables to every occurence of position of R[i] in τ and obtain a TGD denoted τ_{S(R[i])}. And for each tranposition (k l) in T(R[i]) and for each position P[j] in the class R[i], we add a permutation TGD of the form:

P(α, y_1, …, y_k, …, y_l, …, y_{B(R[i])}, β) -> P(α, y_1,…, y_l, …, y_k, …, y_{B(R[i])}, β)

Example: Consider the blown-up TGDs on the equivalent positions B[2] and C[1], we will apply the variables permutation on this position class:

1. τ = A(x) -> B(x, y_1, y_2, y_3), C(y_1, y_2, y_3, x)
2. τ' = B(u, v_1, v_2, v_3), C(v_1, v_2, v_3, u) -> D(u)

We select the transposition set T(R[i]) of {1, 2, 3} equals to {(1 2), (1 3)}. For every p position in τ, we choose that S(τ, p) = id, for the single occurence p_b of B[2] in τ' we choose S(τ', p_b) = (1 3) o (1 2) = (2 3 1) and for the single occurence p_c of C[1] in τ' we choose S(τ', p_c) = (1 2). So we obtain:

1. τ = A(x) -> B(x, y_1, y_2, y_3), C(y_1, y_2, y_3, x)
2. τ'_{S(B[2])} B(u, v_2, v_3, v_1), C(v_2, v_1, v_3, u) -> D(u)
3. B(u, v_1, v_2, v_3) -> B(u, v_2, v_1, v_3)
4. B(u, v_1, v_2, v_3) -> B(u, v_3, v_2, v_1)
5. C(v_1, v_2, v_3, u) -> C(v_2, v_1, v_3, u)
6. C(v_1, v_2, v_3, u) -> C(v_3, v_2, v_1, u)

We observe that we can not evolve (in GSat) τ and τ'_{S(B[2])}, while we can evolve τ and τ'. But we can evolve first τ with 4., then 3. and with 5. to obtain:

A(x) -> B(x, y_1, y_2, y_3), C(y_1, y_2, y_3, x), B(x, y_3, y_2, y_1), B(x, y_2, y_3, y_1), C(y_2, y_1, y_3, x)

This last TGD can be evolved with τ'_{S(B[2])}.

Remarks:

1. Let τ be a TGD and R[i] a class of positions, if for every occurrence p of a position of the R[i] in τ, S(τ, p) always is the same permutation, then τ τ_{S(R[i]) }are the isomorphical. In particular, if there is only one ocurrence of a position of R[i] in τ, τ and τ_{S(R[i])} are isomorphical.
2. As state for the side atoms addition, applying variables permutation do not reduce the complexity of the saturation.

The parameters for the variables permutation:

• the number of transposition in T(R[i]) (remark: n-1 transpositions can generated all the permutation set by composition e.g. (1 2), (1 3), …, (1 n))
• the number of compositions of transpositions from T(R[i]) used to build each S(τ, p)