882 research outputs found
Multi-Head Finite Automata: Characterizations, Concepts and Open Problems
Multi-head finite automata were introduced in (Rabin, 1964) and (Rosenberg,
1966). Since that time, a vast literature on computational and descriptional
complexity issues on multi-head finite automata documenting the importance of
these devices has been developed. Although multi-head finite automata are a
simple concept, their computational behavior can be already very complex and
leads to undecidable or even non-semi-decidable problems on these devices such
as, for example, emptiness, finiteness, universality, equivalence, etc. These
strong negative results trigger the study of subclasses and alternative
characterizations of multi-head finite automata for a better understanding of
the nature of non-recursive trade-offs and, thus, the borderline between
decidable and undecidable problems. In the present paper, we tour a fragment of
this literature
A Casual Tour Around a Circuit Complexity Bound
I will discuss the recent proof that the complexity class NEXP
(nondeterministic exponential time) lacks nonuniform ACC circuits of polynomial
size. The proof will be described from the perspective of someone trying to
discover it.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures. An earlier version appeared in SIGACT News,
September 201
Robust Simulations and Significant Separations
We define and study a new notion of "robust simulations" between complexity
classes which is intermediate between the traditional notions of
infinitely-often and almost-everywhere, as well as a corresponding notion of
"significant separations". A language L has a robust simulation in a complexity
class C if there is a language in C which agrees with L on arbitrarily large
polynomial stretches of input lengths. There is a significant separation of L
from C if there is no robust simulation of L in C. The new notion of simulation
is a cleaner and more natural notion of simulation than the infinitely-often
notion. We show that various implications in complexity theory such as the
collapse of PH if NP = P and the Karp-Lipton theorem have analogues for robust
simulations. We then use these results to prove that most known separations in
complexity theory, such as hierarchy theorems, fixed polynomial circuit lower
bounds, time-space tradeoffs, and the theorems of Allender and Williams, can be
strengthened to significant separations, though in each case, an almost
everywhere separation is unknown.
Proving our results requires several new ideas, including a completely
different proof of the hierarchy theorem for non-deterministic polynomial time
than the ones previously known
Consistency of circuit lower bounds with bounded theories
Proving that there are problems in that require
boolean circuits of super-linear size is a major frontier in complexity theory.
While such lower bounds are known for larger complexity classes, existing
results only show that the corresponding problems are hard on infinitely many
input lengths. For instance, proving almost-everywhere circuit lower bounds is
open even for problems in . Giving the notorious difficulty of
proving lower bounds that hold for all large input lengths, we ask the
following question: Can we show that a large set of techniques cannot prove
that is easy infinitely often? Motivated by this and related
questions about the interaction between mathematical proofs and computations,
we investigate circuit complexity from the perspective of logic.
Among other results, we prove that for any parameter it is
consistent with theory that computational class , where is one of
the pairs: and , and , and
. In other words, these theories cannot establish
infinitely often circuit upper bounds for the corresponding problems. This is
of interest because the weaker theory already formalizes
sophisticated arguments, such as a proof of the PCP Theorem. These consistency
statements are unconditional and improve on earlier theorems of [KO17] and
[BM18] on the consistency of lower bounds with
An Introductory Survey of Computational Space Complexity
Using the Understanding by Design pedagogical methodology, this thesis aims to combine, clarify, and contextualize introductory ideas about computational space complexity and package them in an instructional unit. The unit is composed primarily of a Unit Template, series of Lessons, and Performance Assessments. It is intended to present content acknowledged as valuable by ACM that is often missing from undergraduate computer science curricula at peer educational institutions to Trinity University. The unit covers ideas such as the space hierarchy, computational time / space tradeoffs, and completeness, and is designed to promote understanding and inquiry of and beyond its subject matter
Resource Bounded Immunity and Simplicity
Revisiting the thirty years-old notions of resource-bounded immunity and
simplicity, we investigate the structural characteristics of various immunity
notions: strong immunity, almost immunity, and hyperimmunity as well as their
corresponding simplicity notions. We also study limited immunity and
simplicity, called k-immunity and feasible k-immunity, and their simplicity
notions. Finally, we propose the k-immune hypothesis as a working hypothesis
that guarantees the existence of simple sets in NP.Comment: This is a complete version of the conference paper that appeared in
the Proceedings of the 3rd IFIP International Conference on Theoretical
Computer Science, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp.81-95, Toulouse, France,
August 23-26, 200
A parameterized halting problem, the linear time hierarchy, and the MRDP theorem
The complexity of the parameterized halting problem for nondeterministic Turing machines p-Halt is known to be related to the question of whether there are logics capturing various complexity classes [10]. Among others, if p-Halt is in para-AC0, the parameterized version of the circuit complexity class AC0, then AC0, or equivalently, (+, x)-invariant FO, has a logic. Although it is widely believed that p-Halt ∉. para-AC0, we show that the problem is hard to settle by establishing a connection to the question in classical complexity of whether NE ⊈ LINH. Here, LINH denotes the linear time hierarchy.
On the other hand, we suggest an approach toward proving NE ⊈ LINH using bounded arithmetic. More specifically, we demonstrate that if the much celebrated MRDP (for Matiyasevich-Robinson-Davis-Putnam) theorem can be proved in a certain fragment of arithmetic, then NE ⊈ LINH. Interestingly, central to this result is a para-AC0 lower bound for the parameterized model-checking problem for FO on arithmetical structures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
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