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Positive and Negative Proofs for Circuits and Branching Programs

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Descriptional Complexity of Formal Systems (DCFS 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 8614))

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Abstract

We extend the # operator in a natural way and derive a new type of counting complexity. While #\(\mathcal C\) classes (where \(\mathcal C\) is some circuit-based class like NC 1) only count proofs for acceptance of some input in circuits, one can also count proofs for rejection. The here proposed Zap-\(\mathcal C\) complexity classes implement this idea. We show that Zap-\(\mathcal C\) lies between #\(\mathcal C\) and Gap-\(\mathcal C\). In particular we consider Zap-NC 1 and polynomial size branching programs of bounded and unbounded width. We find connections to planar branching programs since the duality of positive and negative proofs can be found again in the duality of graphs and their co-graphs. This links to possible applications of our contribution, like closure properties of complexity classes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. WSI - University of Tübingen, Germany, Sand 13, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Olga Dorzweiler, Thomas Flamm, Andreas Krebs & Michael Ludwig

Authors
  1. Olga Dorzweiler
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  2. Thomas Flamm
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  3. Andreas Krebs
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  4. Michael Ludwig
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, The University of Western Ontario, N6A 5B7, London, Ontario, Canada

    Helmut Jürgensen

  2. Department of Mathematics and TUCS, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Juhani Karhumäki

  3. University of Turku, Fi-20014, Turku, Finland

    Alexander Okhotin

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Dorzweiler, O., Flamm, T., Krebs, A., Ludwig, M. (2014). Positive and Negative Proofs for Circuits and Branching Programs. In: Jürgensen, H., Karhumäki, J., Okhotin, A. (eds) Descriptional Complexity of Formal Systems. DCFS 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8614. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09704-6_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09704-6_24

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09703-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09704-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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