35,604 research outputs found

    Does Advice Help to Prove Propositional Tautologies?

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    One of the starting points of propositional proof complexity is the seminal paper by Cook and Reckhow [6], where they defined propositional proof systems as poly-time computable functions which have all propositional tautologies as their range. Motivated by provability consequences in bounded arithmetic, Cook and Krajíček [5] have recently started the investigation of proof systems which are computed by poly-time functions using advice. While this yields a more powerful model, it is also less directly applicable in practice. In this note we investigate the question whether the usage of advice in propositional proof systems can be simplified or even eliminated. While in principle, the advice can be very complex, we show that proof systems with logarithmic advice are also computable in poly-time with access to a sparse NP-oracle. In addition, we show that if advice is ”not very helpful” for proving tautologies, then there exists an optimal propositional proof system without advice. In our main result, we prove that advice can be transferred from the proof to the formula, leading to an easier computational model. We obtain this result by employing a recent technique by Buhrman and Hitchcock [4]

    Disjoint NP-pairs from propositional proof systems

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    For a proof system P we introduce the complexity class DNPP(P) of all disjoint NP-pairs for which the disjointness of the pair is efficiently provable in the proof system P. We exhibit structural properties of proof systems which make the previously defined canonical NP-pairs of these proof systems hard or complete for DNPP(P). Moreover we demonstrate that non-equivalent proof systems can have equivalent canonical pairs and that depending on the properties of the proof systems different scenarios for DNPP(P) and the reductions between the canonical pairs exist

    Relativized Propositional Calculus

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    Proof systems for the Relativized Propositional Calculus are defined and compared.Comment: 8 page

    Logical closure properties of propositional proof systems - (Extended abstract)

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    In this paper we define and investigate basic logical closure properties of propositional proof systems such as closure of arbitrary proof systems under modus ponens or substitutions. As our main result we obtain a purely logical characterization of the degrees of schematic extensions of EF in terms of a simple combination of these properties. This result underlines the empirical evidence that EF and its extensions admit a robust definition which rests on only a few central concepts from propositional logic

    On the relative proof complexity of deep inference via atomic flows

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    We consider the proof complexity of the minimal complete fragment, KS, of standard deep inference systems for propositional logic. To examine the size of proofs we employ atomic flows, diagrams that trace structural changes through a proof but ignore logical information. As results we obtain a polynomial simulation of versions of Resolution, along with some extensions. We also show that these systems, as well as bounded-depth Frege systems, cannot polynomially simulate KS, by giving polynomial-size proofs of certain variants of the propositional pigeonhole principle in KS.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures, full version of conference pape

    Classes of representable disjoint NP-pairs

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    For a propositional proof system P we introduce the complexity class of all disjoint -pairs for which the disjointness of the pair is efficiently provable in the proof system P. We exhibit structural properties of proof systems which make canonical -pairs associated with these proof systems hard or complete for . Moreover, we demonstrate that non-equivalent proof systems can have equivalent canonical pairs and that depending on the properties of the proof systems different scenarios for and the reductions between the canonical pairs exist

    Tuples of disjoint NP-sets

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    Disjoint NP-pairs are a well studied complexity theoretic concept with important applications in cryptography and propositional proof complexity. In this paper we introduce a natural generalization of the notion of disjoint NP-pairs to disjoint k-tuples of NP-sets for k ≥ 2. We define subclasses of the class of all disjoint k-tuples of NP-sets. These subclasses are associated with a propositional proof system and possess complete tuples which are defined from the proof system. In our main result we show that complete disjoint NP-pairs exist if and only if complete disjoint k-tuples of NP-sets exist for all k ≥ 2. Further, this is equivalent to the existence of a propositional proof system in which the disjointness of all k-tuples is shortly provable. We also show that a strengthening of this conditions characterizes the existence of optimal proof systems

    Tuples of disjoint NP-sets

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    Disjoint NPUnknown control sequence '\mathsf' -pairs are a well studied complexity-theoretic concept with important applications in cryptography and propositional proof complexity. In this paper we introduce a natural generalization of the notion of disjoint NPUnknown control sequence '\mathsf' -pairs to disjoint k-tuples of NPUnknown control sequence '\mathsf' -sets for k≥2. We define subclasses of the class of all disjoint k-tuples of NPUnknown control sequence '\mathsf' -sets. These subclasses are associated with a propositional proof system and possess complete tuples which are defined from the proof system. In our main result we show that complete disjoint NPUnknown control sequence '\mathsf' -pairs exist if and only if complete disjoint k-tuples of NPUnknown control sequence '\mathsf' -sets exist for all k≥2. Further, this is equivalent to the existence of a propositional proof system in which the disjointness of all k-tuples is shortly provable. We also show that a strengthening of this conditions characterizes the existence of optimal proof systems
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