SymCon:
The International Workshops
on Symmetry in Constraint Satisfaction Problems

Many constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) have symmetries in the variables, domains, or constraints, or any combination thereof. Each of these symmetries preserves satisfiability, so that when there is symmetry in a CSP, any assignment can be transformed into an equivalent one without affecting whether or not it satisfies the constraints.

Symmetry can have an enormous effect on the combinatorial complexity of CSPs. In the presence of symmetry, a constraint solver may waste an exorbitant amount of time considering symmetric but equivalent assignments or partial assignments. Hence, dealing with symmetry is often crucial to the success of solving such CSPs efficiently.

The development of symmetry breaking and symmetry detection techniques in constraint programming (CP) has actually started in the early 1990s. In the early 2000s, there was a renewed and intense interest in such techniques. Progress made especially during these last few years is substantial, whereby the SymCon workshop series has played a key role in providing an open forum for CSP researchers as well as researchers from SAT, Mathematical Programming, and Computational Group Theory alike.