Related papers: Narrow Proofs May Be Maximally Long
We investigate the space complexity of refuting $3$-CNFs in Resolution and algebraic systems. We prove that every Polynomial Calculus with Resolution refutation of a random $3$-CNF $\phi$ in $n$ variables requires, with high probability,…
We study the complexity of the following "resolution width problem": Does a given 3-CNF have a resolution refutation of width k? We prove that the problem cannot be decided in time O(n^((k-3)/12)). This lower bound is unconditional and does…
We exhibit families of $4$-CNF formulas over $n$ variables that have sums-of-squares (SOS) proofs of unsatisfiability of degree (a.k.a. rank) $d$ but require SOS proofs of size $n^{\Omega(d)}$ for values of $d = d(n)$ from constant all the…
We show that there are CNF formulas which can be refuted in resolution in both small space and small width, but for which any small-width proof must have space exceeding by far the linear worst-case upper bound. This significantly…
We study -- within the framework of propositional proof complexity -- the problem of certifying unsatisfiability of CNF formulas under the promise that any satisfiable formula has many satisfying assignments, where ``many'' stands for an…
In 2003, Atserias and Dalmau resolved a major open question about the resolution proof system by establishing that the space complexity of CNF formulas is always an upper bound on the width needed to refute them. Their proof is beautiful…
We investigate the space complexity of refuting $3$-CNFs in Resolution and algebraic systems. No lower bound for refuting any family of $3$-CNFs was previously known for the total space in resolution or for the monomial space in algebraic…
For any unsatisfiable CNF formula we give an exponential lower bound on the size of resolution refutations of a propositional statement that the formula has a resolution refutation. We describe three applications. (1) An open question in…
For every $n >0$, we show the existence of a CNF tautology over $O(n^2)$ variables of width $O(\log n)$ such that it has a Polynomial Calculus Resolution refutation over $\{0,1\}$ variables of size $O(n^3polylog(n))$ but any Polynomial…
Random 3CNF formulas constitute an important distribution for measuring the average-case behavior of propositional proof systems. Lower bounds for random 3CNF refutations in many propositional proof systems are known. Most notably are the…
We prove superpolynomial length lower bounds for the semantic tree-like Frege refutation system with bounded line size. Concretely, for any function $n^{2-\varepsilon} \leq s(n) \leq 2^{n^{1-\varepsilon}}$ we exhibit an explicit family…
A major open problem in proof complexity is to demonstrate that random 3-CNFs with a linear number of clauses require super-polynomial size refutations in bounded-depth Frege systems. We take the first step towards addressing this question…
We demonstrate a family of propositional formulas in conjunctive normal form so that a formula of size $N$ requires size $2^{\Omega(\sqrt[7]{N/logN})}$ to refute using the tree-like OBDD refutation system of Atserias, Kolaitis and Vardi…
Let $\phi$ be a 3CNF formula with n variables and m clauses. A simple nonconstructive argument shows that when m is sufficiently large compared to n, most 3CNF formulas are not satisfiable. It is an open question whether there is an…
We call a CNF formula linear if any two clauses have at most one variable in common. We show that there exist unsatisfiable linear k-CNF formulas with at most 4k^2 4^k clauses, and on the other hand, any linear k-CNF formula with at most…
In this note we show that any $k$-CNF which can be refuted by a quasi-polynomial $\mathsf{Res}^*(\mathsf{polylog})$ refutation has a "narrow" refutation in $\mathsf{Res}$ (i.e., of poly-logarithmic width). We also show the converse…
Atserias and M\"uller (JACM, 2020) proved that for every unsatisfiable CNF formula $\varphi$, the formula $\operatorname{Ref}(\varphi)$, stating "$\varphi$ has small Resolution refutations", does not have subexponential-size Resolution…
We exhibit a monotone function computable by a monotone circuit of quasipolynomial size such that any monotone circuit of polynomial depth requires exponential size. This is the first size-depth tradeoff result for monotone circuits in the…
We present a general method for converting any family of unsatisfiable CNF formulas that is hard for one of the simplest proof systems, tree resolution, into formulas that require large rank in any proof system that manipulates polynomials…
We prove two results about width of words in $SL_n(\mathbb{Z})$. The first is that, for every $n \geq 3$, there is a constant $C(n)$ such that the width of any word in $SL_n(\mathbb{Z})$ is less than $C(n)$. The second result is that, for…