Complexity theory on Thomas van Maaren

Circuits

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:57:01 +0100

Definition An \(n\)-ary boolean function is a function \(f:\{0,1\}^n\to \{0,1\}\).

Proposition For every boolean function \(f\) there is a propositional formula \(\varphi\) such that the function defined by \(\varphi\) is equal to \(f\).

Definition The size of a circuit is defined as the amount of and-, not-, and or-gates.

Definition Suppose that \(\{C_n\}_{n\in \mathbb{N}}\) is a family of circuits such that for every \(n\), \(C_n\) computes a boolean function of \(n\) inputs. A family computes a language \(L\) if for all \(x\in \{0,1\}^n\) we have

Randomized computation

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 17:14:16 +0100

PP

We are going to look at a variant of NP where the acceptance criterion is probabilistic over all paths. Given a nondeterministic Turing machine the error probability is the ratio of the parths giving the wrong answer. These are probabilistic Turing machines.

Definition PP is the class of probabilistic polynomial time sets. Meaning a set \(L\) that is computed in polynomial time by probabilistic machine such that

\[x\in L \iff \text{the fraction of accepting paths is }>1/2\]

Which implies that

Diagonalization

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:14:41 +0100

Diagonalization is a proof technique first used by Georg Cantor to show that some infinities are greater than others. In proof theory it is used a lot. Most famously for proving the halting problem.

Theorem(Halting problem) Not every problem is computable.

Assume to the contrary that any problem is computable. We consider \(\{(M,x) \mid M(x)\text{ halts }\}\). Then this must also be a computable, hence we can define a machine \(N\) such that \(N(M)\) does not halt if and only if \(M(M)\) halts. Now let us think if \(N(N)\) halts. We see that \(N(N)\) does not halt if and only if \(N(N)\) halts which is a contradiction.

Chapter 4 Relativized computation and the polynomial hierarchy

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:24:10 +0100

Relativized computation

An oracle Turing machine is a machine which has a lookup table (oracle) which has constant lookup time. This lookup table can be read from and written to.

Definition Given oracle turing machine \(M\), we let \(M^B\) be the function computed using oracle \(B\).

Definition A set \(A\) Turing reduces to \(B\) denoted \(A\leq_T^p B\), if \(A=M^B\) for some machine \(M\) working in polynomial time.

Proposition \(A\leq_m^p B \implies A\leq_T^p B\)

Chapter 11 Proof Complexity

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 13:36:43 +0100

We know that any propositional formula has a proof. Now we are interested if every propositional formula has a “short” proof. Where “short” means polynomial given the size of the propositional formula.