Related papers: Resolution and the binary encoding of combinatoria…
We introduce the binary value principle which is a simple subset-sum instance expressing that a natural number written in binary cannot be negative, relating it to central problems in proof and algebraic complexity. We prove conditional…
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…
A classical question of propositional logic is one of the shortest proof of a tautology. A related fundamental problem is to determine the relative efficiency of standard proof systems, where the relative complexity is measured using the…
We prove that there are 3-CNF formulas over n variables that can be refuted in resolution in width w but require resolution proofs of size n^Omega(w). This shows that the simple counting argument that any formula refutable in width w must…
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…
In recent years, many connections have been made between minimal codes, a classical object in coding theory, and other remarkable structures in finite geometry and combinatorics. One of the main problems related to minimal codes is to give…
We study propositional proof systems with inference rules that formalize restricted versions of the ability to make assumptions that hold without loss of generality, commonly used informally to shorten proofs. Each system we study is built…
Most state-of-the-art satisfiability algorithms today are variants of the DPLL procedure augmented with clause learning. The main bottleneck for such algorithms, other than the obvious one of time, is the amount of memory used. In the field…
In this paper, we analyze 2CNF formulas from the perspectives of Read-Once resolution (ROR) refutation schemes. We focus on two types of ROR refutations, viz., variable-once refutation and clause-once refutation. In the former, each…
In this work, we study two types of constraints on two-dimensional binary arrays. In particular, given $p,\epsilon>0$, we study (i) The $p$-bounded constraint: a binary vector of size $m$ is said to be $p$-bounded if its weight is at most…
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…
We display an application of the notions of kernelization and data reduction from parameterized complexity to proof complexity: Specifically, we show that the existence of data reduction rules for a parameterized problem having (a). a…
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 develop and study the complexity of propositional proof systems of varying strength extending resolution by allowing it to operate with disjunctions of linear equations instead of clauses. We demonstrate polynomial-size refutations for…
We consider the problem of encoding range minimum queries (RMQs): given an array A[1..n] of distinct totally ordered values, to pre-process A and create a data structure that can answer the query RMQ(i,j), which returns the index containing…
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…
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 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 study the refutation complexity of graph isomorphism in the tree-like resolution calculus. Tor\'an and W\"orz (TOCL 2023) showed that there is a resolution refutation of narrow width $k$ for two graphs if and only if they can be…
Proving complexity lower bounds remains a challenging task: we only know how to prove conditional uniform lower bounds and nonuniform lower bounds in restricted circuit models. Williams (STOC 2010) showed how to derive nonuniform lower…