Abstract
Informally, a mathematical proof is transparent (or holographic) if it can be verified with large confidence by a small number of spotchecks. Recent work of a large group of researchers has shown that this seemingly paradoxical concept can be formalized and is feasible in a remarkably strong sense. This fact in turn has surprising implications toward the intractability of approximate solutions of a wide range of discrete optimization problems. Below we state some of the main results in the area, with pointers to the literature. David Johnson's excellent survey [Jo] of the same subject gives a different angle and greater detail, including many additional references.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Arora, S., Lund, C., Motwani, R., Sudan, M., Szegedy, M.: Proof verification and hardness of approximation problems. In:Proc. 33rd IEEE FOCS (1992), pp. 14–23.
Arora, S., Safra, S.: Probabilistic checking of proofs. In: Proc. 33rd IEEE FOCS (1992), pp. 2–13.
Babai, L., Fortnow, L., Lund, C.: Nondeterministic exponential time has two-prover interactive protocols. Computational Complexity 1 (1991) 3–40.
Babai, L., Fortnow, L., Levin, L.A., Szegedy, M.: Checking computations in polylogarithmic time. In: Proc. 23rd ACM STOC (1991), pp. 21–31.
Ben-Or, M., Goldwasser, S., Kilian, J., Wigderson, A.: Multi-prover interactive proofs: How to remove the intractability assumptions. In: Proc. 20th ACM STOC (1988), pp. 113–131.
Blum, A., Jiang, T., Li, M., Tromp. J., Yannakakis, M.: Linear approximation of shortest superstrings. In: Proc. 23rd ACM STOC (1991), pp. 328–336.
Blum, M., Kannan, S.: Designing Programs that Check Their Work. In: Proc. 21st ACM STOC (1989), pp. 86–97.
Blum, M., Luby, M., Rubinfeld, R.: Self-testing/correcting with Applications to Numerical Problems. In: Proc. 22nd ACM Symp. on Theory of Computing (1990), pp. 73–83.
Gonick, Larry: Proof Positive? Discover Magazine, “Science classics” section, August 1992, pp. 2–27.
Feige, U., Goldwasser, S., Lovász, L., Safra, S., Szegedy, M.: Approximating clique is almost NP-complete. In: Proc. 32nd IEEE FOCS (1991) 2–12.
Feige, U., Lovász, L.: Two-prover one-round proof systems: their power and their problems. In: Proc. 24th ACM STOC (1992), pp. 733–744.
Fortnow, L.: private communication, 1992
Fortnow, L., Rompel, J., Sipser, M.: On the power of multi-prover interactive protocols. In: Proc. 3rd Structure in Complexity Theory Conf. (1988), pp. 156–161.
Garey, M. R., Johnson, D. S.: Computers and Intractability, A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness, Freeman, New York, 1979.
Gemmell, P., Lipton, R., Rubinfeld, R., Sudan, M., Wigderson, A.: Selftesting/correcting for polynomials and for approximate functions. In: Proc. 23rd ACM STOC (1991) pp. 32–42.
Impagliazzo, R., Zuckerman, D., How to recycle random bits. In: Proc. 30th IEEE FOCS (1989), pp. 248–253.
Johnson, D. S.: The NP-Completeness Column: An Ongoing Guide. J. of Algorithms 13 (1992), 502–524.
Kann, Viggo: On the approximability of NP-complete optimization problems. Ph.D. Thesis. Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. May 1992.
Karger, D., Motwani, R., Ramkumar, G. D. S.: On approximating the longest path in a graph. Manuscript, 1992.
Lapidot, D., Shamir, A.: Fully Parallelized Multi Prover Protocols for NEXPTIME. In: Proc. 32nd IEEE FOCS, 1991, pp. 13–18.
Lund, Carsten: Efficient probabilistically checkable proofs. Manuscript, November 1992.
Lund, C., Fortnow, L., Karloff, H., Nisan, N.: Algebraic Methods for Interactive Proof Systems. In: Proc. 31th IEEE FOCS (1990), pp. 2–10.
Lund, C., Yannakakis, M.: On the hardness of approximating minimization problems. AT& T Technical Memorandum, 1992. Submitted to STOC'93.
Kolata, Gina: New Short Cut Found for Long Math Proofs. The New York Times, April 7, 1992, Science Times section, p. B5.
Papadimitriou, C., Yannakakis, M.: Optimization, approximation, and complexity classes. In: Proc. 20th ACM STOC (1988), pp. 510–513.
Phillips, S., Safra, S.: PCP and tighter bounds for approximating MAX — SNP. Manuscript, Stanford University, April 1992.
Rubinfeld, R.: A Mathematical Theory of Self-Checking, Self-Testing and Self-Correcting Programs. Ph.D. Thesis, Computer Science Dept., U.C. Berkeley (1990)
Rubinfeld, R., Sudan, M.: Testing polynomial functions efficiently and over rational domains. In:Proc. 3rd ACM-SIAM SODA (1992) 23–32
Peterson, Ivars: Holographic proofs: keeping computers and mathematicians honest. Science News, vol. 141 (1992), 382–383.
Cipra, Barry A.: Theoretical Computer Scientists Develop Transparent Proof Technique. SIAM News, vol. 25, No. 3, May 1992.
Sudan, Madhu: Efficient checking of polynomials and proofs and the hardness of approximation problems. Ph.D. Thesis. U.C. Berkeley. October 1992.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Babai, L. (1993). Transparent (holographic) proofs. In: Enjalbert, P., Finkel, A., Wagner, K.W. (eds) STACS 93. STACS 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 665. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56503-5_52
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56503-5_52
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-56503-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47574-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive