On the structure of intractable sets

There are two parts to this dissertation. The first part is motivated by nothing less than a reexamination of what it means for a set to be NP-complete. Are there sets in NP that in a mathematically meaningful sense should be considered to be complete for NP, but that are not NP-complete in the usual sense that every set in NP is ≤q[subscript]spmP-reducible to it? We define a noneffective binary relation that makes precise the notion that the complexity of A is polynomially related to the complexity of B, This relation yields new completeness and hardness notions for complexity classes, and we show that there are sets that are hard for NP that are not NP-hard in the usual sense. We also show that there are sets that must be considered to be complete for E that are not even ≤q[subscript]spTP-complete for E;In a certain way, hardness and completeness with respect to the relation we define is related to the notion of almost everywhere (a.e.) complexity, and so we initiate this study by first investigating this notion. We state and prove a deterministic time hierarchy theorem for a.e. complexity that is as tight as the Hartmanis-Stearns hierarchy theorem for infinitely often complexity. This result is a significant improvement over all previously known hierarchy theorems for a.e. complex sets. We derive similar, very tight, hierarchy theorems for sets that cannot be a.e. complex for syntactic reasons, but for which, intuitively, a.e. complex notions should exit. Similar results are applied to the study of P-printable sets and sets of low generalized Kolmogorov complexity;The second part of this study deals with relativization. Does the fact that DTIME(O (n)) ≠ NTIME(n) help in leading us to a proof that P ≠ NP? Does one imply the other? We seek evidence that this is a hard . We construct an oracle that answers this question in the affirmative, and we construct an oracle that answers this question in the negative. We conclude that the result that DTIME(O (n)) ≠ NTIME(n) does not imply P ≠ NP by recursive theoretic techniques;Finally, we study the relationships between P, NP, and the unambiguous and random time classes UP, and RP. Questions concerning these relationships are motivated by complexity issues to public-key cryptosystems. We prove that there exists a recursive oracle A such that P[superscript]A ≠ UP[superscript]A≠ NP[superscript]A, and such that the first inequality is strong, i.e., there exists a P[superscript]A-immune set in UP[superscript]A. Further, we constructed a recursive oracle B such that UP[superscript]B contains an RP[superscript]B-immune set. As a corollary we obtain P[superscript]B ≠ RB[superscript]B≠ NP[superscript]B and both inequalities are strong. By use of the techniques employed in the proof that P[superscript]A≠ UP[superscript]A≠ NP[superscript]A, we are also able to solve an open problem raised by Book, Long and Selman

The Quantitative Structure of Exponential Time

Department of Computer Science Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50010 Recent results on the internal, measure-theoretic structure of the exponential time complexity classes linear polynomial E = DTIME(2 ) and E = DTIME(2 ) 2 are surveyed. The measure structure of these classes is seen to interact in informative ways with bi-immunity, complexity cores, polynomial-time many-one reducibility, circuit-size complexity, Kolmogorov complexity, and the density of hard languages. Possible implications for the structure of NP are also discussed

Complexity of certificates, heuristics, and counting types , with applications to cryptography and circuit theory

In dieser Habilitationsschrift werden Struktur und Eigenschaften von Komplexitätsklassen wie P und NP untersucht, vor allem im Hinblick auf: Zertifikatkomplexität, Einwegfunktionen, Heuristiken gegen NP-Vollständigkeit und Zählkomplexität. Zum letzten Punkt werden speziell untersucht: (a) die Komplexität von Zähleigenschaften von Schaltkreisen, (b) Separationen von Zählklassen mit Immunität und (c) die Komplexität des Zählens der Lösungen von ,,tally`` NP-Problemen

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

The Quantitative Structure of Exponential Time

Recent results on the internal, measure-theoretic structure of the exponential time complexity classes E = DTIME(2^linear) and E2 = DTIME(2^polynomial) are surveyed. The measure structure of these classes is seen to interact in informative ways with bi-immunity, complexity cores, polynomial-time many-one reducibility, circuit-size complexity, Kolmogorov complexity, and the density of hard languages. Possible implications for the structure of NP are also discussed

On the relative complexity of hard problems for complexity classes without complete problems

AbstractWe show that any recursive sequence of recursive sets which is ascending with respect to the standard polynomial time reducibility notions has no minimal upper bound. As a consequence, any complexity class with certain natural closure properties possesses either complete problems or no easiest hard problems. A further corollary is that, assuming P ≠ NP, the partial ordering of the polynomial time degrees of NP-sets is not complete, and that there are no degree invariant approximations to NP-complete problems

The Structure of logarithmic advice complexity classes

A nonuniform class called here Full-P/log, due to Ko, is studied. It corresponds to polynomial time with logarithmically long advice. Its importance lies in the structural properties it enjoys, more interesting than those of the alternative class P/log; specifically, its introduction was motivated by the need of a logarithmic advice class closed under polynomial-time deterministic reductions. Several characterizations of Full-P/log are shown, formulated in terms of various sorts of tally sets with very small information content. A study of its inner structure is presented, by considering the most usual reducibilities and looking for the relationships among the corresponding reduction and equivalence classes defined from these special tally sets.Postprint (published version