Given a p-order A over a universe of strings (i.e., a transitive, reflexive,
antisymmetric relation such that if (x, y) is an element of A then |x| is
polynomially bounded by |y|), an interval size function of A returns, for each
string x in the universe, the number of strings in the interval between strings
b(x) and t(x) (with respect to A), where b(x) and t(x) are functions that are
polynomial-time computable in the length of x.
By choosing sets of interval size functions based on feasibility requirements
for their underlying p-orders, we obtain new characterizations of complexity
classes. We prove that the set of all interval size functions whose underlying
p-orders are polynomial-time decidable is exactly #P. We show that the interval
size functions for orders with polynomial-time adjacency checks are closely
related to the class FPSPACE(poly). Indeed, FPSPACE(poly) is exactly the class
of all nonnegative functions that are an interval size function minus a
polynomial-time computable function.
We study two important functions in relation to interval size functions. The
function #DIV maps each natural number n to the number of nontrivial divisors
of n. We show that #DIV is an interval size function of a polynomial-time
decidable partial p-order with polynomial-time adjacency checks. The function
#MONSAT maps each monotone boolean formula F to the number of satisfying
assignments of F. We show that #MONSAT is an interval size function of a
polynomial-time decidable total p-order with polynomial-time adjacency checks.
Finally, we explore the related notion of cluster computation.Comment: This revision fixes a problem in the proof of Theorem 9.
