Abstract
This paper discusses current techniques for proving lower bounds on the size of resolution proofs from sets of clauses expressing assertions about matchings in bipartite graphs (a class including the well-known pigeon-hole clauses). The techniques are illustrated by demonstrating an improved lower bound for some examples discussed by Kleine Büning. The final section discusses some problems where current techniques appear inadequate, and new ideas seem to be required.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. Alekhnovich, Mutilated chessboard problem is exponentially hard for resolution, preprint (2000). Available at http://www.math.ias.edu/~misha/papers/domino.ps.
P. Beame and T. Pitassi, Simplified and improved resolution lower bounds, in: Proceedings of the 37th Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science (1996) pp. 274–282.
B. Bollobás, Graph Theory (Springer, Berlin, 1979).
H. Kleine Büning, Resolution remains hard under equivalence, Discrete Applied Mathematics 96-97 (1999) 139–148.
H. Kleine Büning and U. Löwen, Optimizing propositional calculus formulas with regard to questions of deducibility, Information and Computation 80 (1989) 18–43.
S.R. Buss and T. Pitassi, Resolution and the weak pigeonhole principle, in: CSL'97, 1996, to appear.
S.R. Buss and G. Turán, Resolution proofs of generalized pigeonhole principles, Theoretical Computer Science 62 (1988) 311–317.
S. Dantchev and S. Riis, Planar tautologies, hard for resolution, preprint (2000). Available at http://www.dcs.qmw.ac.uk/~smriis/planar.ps.
A. Haken, The intractability of resolution, Theoretical Computer Science 39 (1985) 297–308.
B. Krishnamurthy, Short proofs for tricky formulas, Acta Informatica 22 (1985) 253–275.
J. McCarthy, A tough nut for proof procedures, Stanford Artifical Intelligence Project Memo 16, Stanford University (July 1964). Available at http://www-formal.stanford.edu/pub/jmc/nut.html.
T. Pitassi and R. Raz, Regular resolution lower bounds for the weak pigeonhole principle, in: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (2001) pp. 347–355.
R. Raz, Resolution lower bounds for the weak pigeonhole principle, Technical report, Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity (2001). Available at http://www.eccc.uni-trier.de/pub/reports/2001.
A. Razborov, Improved resolution lower bounds for the weak pigeonhole principle, Technical report, Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity (2001). Available at http://www.eccc.uni-trier.de/pub/reports/2001.
A.A. Razborov, A. Wigderson and A. Yao, Read-once branching programs, rectangular proofs of pigeonhole principle and the transversal calculus, in: Proceedings of the 29th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (1997) pp. 739–748.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Urquhart, A. Resolution Proofs of Matching Principles. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence 37, 241–250 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021231610627
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021231610627