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LOWER BOUNDS FOR REGULAR RESOLUTION OVER PARITIES

Klim Efremenko, Michal Garlik, Dmitry Itsykson

The proof system resolution over parities (Res(\oplus)) operates with disjunctions of linear equations (linear clauses) over \BbbF2; it extends the resolution proof system by incorporating linear algebra over \BbbF2. Over the years, several exponential lower bounds on the size of tree-like Res(\oplus) refutations have been established. However, proving a superpolynomial lower bound on the size of dag-like Res(\oplus) refutations remains a highly challenging open question. We prove an exponential lower bound for regular Res(\oplus). Regular Res(\oplus) is a subsystem of dag-like Res(\oplus) that naturally extends regular resolution. This is the first known superpolynomial lower bound for a fragment of dag-like Res(\oplus) which is exponentially stronger than tree-like Res(\oplus). In the regular regime, resolving linear clauses C1 and C2 on a linear form f is permitted only if, for both i \in \{1, 2\}, the linear form f does not lie within the linear span of all linear forms that were used in resolution rules during the derivation of Ci. Namely, we show that the _size of any regular Res(\oplus) refutation of the binary pigeonhole principle BPHPnn+1 is at least 2\Omega(\surd3 n/ log n). A corollary of our result is an exponential lower bound on the size of a strongly read-once linear branching program solving a search problem. This resolves an open question raised by Gryaznov, Pudl\'ak, and Talebanfard [Proceedings of the 37th Computational Complexity Conference, LIPIcs Leibniz Int. Proc. Inform. 234, S. Lovett, ed., Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum f\" ur Informatik, 2022, pp. 1-16]. As a byproduct of our technique, we prove that the size of any tree-like Res(\oplus) refutation of the weak binary pigeonhole principle BPHPmn is at least 2\Omega(n) using Prover-Delayer games. We also give a direct proof of a width lower bound: we show that any dag-like Res(\oplus) refutation of BPHPmn contains a linear clause C with \Omega(n) linearly independent equations.

שפת פרסום אנגלית
דפים 887-915
כתב עת SIAM Journal on Computing
כרך 54
נושא מספר 4
סטטוס פרסום פורסם - 01.01.2025

Keywords

binary pigeonhole principle
lower bounds
proof complexity
regular resolution
resolution over linear equations

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Computer Science
General Mathematics
גישה למסמך
10.1137/24M1696640
קבצים וקישורים אחרים
Link to publication in Scopus