Automating resolution is NP-Hard

We show that the problem of finding a Resolution refutation that is at most polynomially longer than a shortest one is NP-hard. In the parlance of proof complexity, Resolution is not automatable unless P = NP. Indeed, we show that it is NP-hard to distinguish between formulas that have Resolution re...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Atserias, Albert|||0000-0002-3732-1989, Muller, Moritz Martin
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/337031
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/337031
https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3409472
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Computational complexity
Resolution
Proof search
NP-hardness
Complexitat computacional
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Informàtica teòrica
Descripción
Sumario:We show that the problem of finding a Resolution refutation that is at most polynomially longer than a shortest one is NP-hard. In the parlance of proof complexity, Resolution is not automatable unless P = NP. Indeed, we show that it is NP-hard to distinguish between formulas that have Resolution refutations of polynomial length and those that do not have subexponential length refutations. This also implies that Resolution is not automatable in subexponential time or quasi-polynomial time unless NP is included in SUBEXP or QP, respectively.