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Some remarks on lengths of propositional proofs

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Abstract

We survey the best known lower bounds on symbols and lines in Frege and extended Frege proofs. We prove that in minimum length sequent calculus proofs, no formula is generated twice or used twice on any single branch of the proof. We prove that the number of distinct subformulas in a minimum length Frege proof is linearly bounded by the number of lines. Depthd Frege proofs ofm lines can be transformed into depthd proofs ofO(m d+1) symbols. We show that renaming Frege proof systems are p-equivalent to extended Frege systems. Some open problems in propositional proof length and in logical flow graphs are discussed.

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Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-9205181

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Buss, S.R. Some remarks on lengths of propositional proofs. Arch Math Logic 34, 377–394 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02391554

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