Finite Model Theory and Proof Complexity Revisited: Distinguishing Graphs in Choiceless Polynomial Time and the Extended Polynomial Calculus

This paper extends prior work on the connections between logics from finite model theory and propositional/algebraic proof systems. We show that if all non-isomorphic graphs in a given graph class can be distinguished in the logic Choiceless Polynomial Time with counting (CPT), then they can also be distinguished in the bounded-degree extended polynomial calculus (EPC), and the refutations have roughly the same size as the resource consumption of the CPT-sentence. This allows to transfer lower bounds for EPC to CPT and thus constitutes a new potential approach towards better understanding the limits of CPT. A super-polynomial EPC lower bound for a Ptime-instance of the graph isomorphism problem would separate CPT from Ptime and thus solve a major open question in finite model theory. Further, using our result, we provide a model theoretic proof for the separation of bounded-degree polynomial calculus and bounded-degree extended polynomial calculus

Choiceless Polynomial Time, Symmetric Circuits and Cai-F\"urer-Immerman Graphs

Choiceless Polynomial Time (CPT) is currently the only candidate logic for capturing PTIME (that is, it is contained in PTIME and has not been separated from it). A prominent example of a decision problem in PTIME that is not known to be CPT-definable is the isomorphism problem on unordered Cai-F\"urer-Immerman graphs (the CFI-query). We study the expressive power of CPT with respect to this problem and develop a partial characterisation of solvable instances in terms of properties of symmetric XOR-circuits over the CFI-graphs: The CFI-query is CPT-definable on a given class of graphs only if: For each graph $G$, there exists an XOR-circuit $C$, whose input gates are labelled with edges of $G$, such that $C$ is sufficiently symmetric with respect to the automorphisms of $G$ and satisfies certain other circuit properties. We also give a sufficient condition for CFI being solvable in CPT and develop a new CPT-algorithm for the CFI-query. It takes as input structures which contain, along with the CFI-graph, an XOR-circuit with suitable properties. The strongest known CPT-algorithm for this problem can solve instances equipped with a preorder with colour classes of logarithmic size. Our result implicitly extends this to preorders with colour classes of polylogarithmic size (plus some unordered additional structure). Finally, our work provides new insights regarding a much more general problem: The existence of a solution to an unordered linear equation system $A \cdot x = b$ over a finite field is CPT-definable if the matrix $A$ has at most logarithmic rank (with respect to the size of the structure that encodes the equation system). This is another example that separates CPT from fixed-point logic with counting

The Model-Theoretic Expressiveness of Propositional Proof Systems

We establish new, and surprisingly tight, connections between propositional proof complexity and finite model theory. Specifically, we show that the power of several propositional proof systems, such as Horn resolution, bounded width resolution, and the polynomial calculus of bounded degree, can be characterised in a precise sense by variants of fixed-point logics that are of fundamental importance in descriptive complexity theory. Our main results are that Horn resolution has the same expressive power as least fixed-point logic, that bounded width resolution captures existential least fixed-point logic, and that the (monomial restriction of the) polynomial calculus of bounded degree solves precisely the problems definable in fixed-point logic with counting

Limitations of Game Comonads via Homomorphism Indistinguishability

Abramsky, Dawar, and Wang (2017) introduced the pebbling comonad for k-variable counting logic and thereby initiated a line of work that imports category theoretic machinery to finite model theory. Such game comonads have been developed for various logics, yielding characterisations of logical equivalences in terms of isomorphisms in the associated co-Kleisli category. We show a first limitation of this approach by studying linear-algebraic logic, which is strictly more expressive than first-order counting logic and whose k-variable logical equivalence relations are known as invertible-map equivalences (IM). We show that there exists no finite-rank comonad on the category of graphs whose co-Kleisli isomorphisms characterise IM-equivalence, answering a question of \'O Conghaile and Dawar (CSL 2021). We obtain this result by ruling out a characterisation of IM-equivalence in terms of homomorphism indistinguishability and employing the Lov\'asz-type theorems for game comonads established by Dawar, Jakl, and Reggio (2021). Two graphs are homomorphism indistinguishable over a graph class if they admit the same number of homomorphisms from every graph in the class. The IM-equivalences cannot be characterised in this way, neither when counting homomorphisms in the natural numbers, nor in any finite prime field.Comment: Minor corrections in Section

A Finite-Model-Theoretic View on Propositional Proof Complexity

We establish new, and surprisingly tight, connections between propositional proof complexity and finite model theory. Specifically, we show that the power of several propositional proof systems, such as Horn resolution, bounded-width resolution, and the polynomial calculus of bounded degree, can be characterised in a precise sense by variants of fixed-point logics that are of fundamental importance in descriptive complexity theory. Our main results are that Horn resolution has the same expressive power as least fixed-point logic, that bounded-width resolution captures existential least fixed-point logic, and that the polynomial calculus with bounded degree over the rationals solves precisely the problems definable in fixed-point logic with counting. By exploring these connections further, we establish finite-model-theoretic tools for proving lower bounds for the polynomial calculus over the rationals and over finite fields

Finite Model Theory and Proof Complexity revisited: Distinguishing graphs in Choiceless Polynomial Time and the Extended Polynomial Calculus

This paper extends prior work on the connections between logics from finite model theory and propositional/algebraic proof systems. We show that if all non-isomorphic graphs in a given graph class can be distinguished in the logic Choiceless Polynomial Time with counting (CPT), then they can also be distinguished in the bounded-degree extended polynomial calculus (EPC), and the refutations have roughly the same size as the resource consumption of the CPT-sentence. This allows to transfer lower bounds for EPC to CPT and thus constitutes a new potential approach towards better understanding the limits of CPT. A super-polynomial EPC lower bound for a PTIME-instance of the graph isomorphism problem would separate CPT from PTIME and thus solve a major open question in finite model theory. Further, using our result, we provide a model theoretic proof for the separation of bounded-degree polynomial calculus and bounded-degree extended polynomial calculus