The Optimizer Quotient and the Certification Trilemma
Abstract
The optimizer quotient is the canonical object for exact decision-relevant information: it is the coarsest exact decision-preserving abstraction (Theorem 2.15). This paper proves that exact certification of this object's coordinate structure is subject to an impossibility trilemma: under , no certifier can be simultaneously sound, complete on all in-scope instances, and polynomial-budgeted (Theorem 7.1). The cost of this impossibility varies by regime: coNP (static), PP-hard (stochastic decisiveness), PSPACE-complete (sequential). Six structural restrictions collapse certification to polynomial time. The finite reduction and verification core is mechanized in Lean 4.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.14689,
title = {The Optimizer Quotient and the Certification Trilemma},
author = {Tristan Simas},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.14689},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
59 pages, 6 tables, Lean 4 artifact and supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18998870