Basic successor function
Assignment A2 is an immediate successor of A1 if
- the representation of A1 is a subset of the representation of A2; and
- the representations of A1 and A2 differ by exactly 1 variable value
- e.g., {v3=b3} is an immediate successor of {}
- e.g., {v3=b3 , v2=b2} is an eventual successor, but not an immediate successor, of {}
Definition of immediate successors is
- complete: all assignments are eventual successors of the least cost assignment
- monotonic: if A2 is an immediate successor of A1, then c(A1) ? c(A2)