English

Separating Rank Logic from Polynomial Time

Logic in Computer Science 2023-08-15 v5 Logic

Abstract

In the search for a logic capturing polynomial time the most promising candidates are Choiceless Polynomial Time (CPT) and rank logic. Rank logic extends fixed-point logic with counting by a rank operator over prime fields. We show that the isomorphism problem for CFI graphs over Z2i\mathbb{Z}_{2^i} cannot be defined in rank logic, even if the base graph is totally ordered. However, CPT can define this isomorphism problem. We thereby separate rank logic from CPT and in particular from polynomial time.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2104.12999,
  title  = {Separating Rank Logic from Polynomial Time},
  author = {Moritz Lichter},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.12999},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

54 pages. Full version of a paper appeared at LICS 2021. [v3] Fixed some minor mistakes/typos in the proofs [v4] Fixed a mistake in the CFI construction [v5] added more details in some proofs, corrected minor mistakes

R2 v1 2026-06-24T01:33:02.515Z