Thursday, April 23, 2009

Lecture 26

Today we covered...

Proof Complexity and the NP vs. coNP problem. The "Resolution" proof system with the resolution rule (Cx, Cx¯ CCʹ) and the weakening rule (CCx). Completeness of Resolution with proof sketch. Various contradictions (tautologies, in fact): Pigeonhole Principle, Tseitin Tautologies, Random 3-CNF. Treelike Resolution. Resolution width. Short Proofs Are Narrow Theorem, proved for Treelike Resolution. Ben-Sasson & Wigderson Theorem: Unsatisfiable k-CNFs with "expansion" require wide Resolution proofs.


By the way, the question came up as to separating Treelike Resolution from General Resolution. A very strong result was proved for this problem by Ben-Sasson, Impagliazzo, and Wigderson: There is a natural family of contradictions with n variables and O(n) clauses, which have Resolution refutations of length O(n) but requires Treelike Resolution refutations of length 2Ω(n/logn).

The contradictions here are based on "pebbling" expander graphs; more specifically, the results in an old paper of Paul, Tarjan, and Celoni.

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