This is the nineteenth edition of a (usually) quarterly column that covers new developments in the theory of NP-completeness. The presentation is modeled on that used by M. R. Garey and myself in our book ‘‘Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness,’ ’ W. H. Freeman & Co., New York, 1979 (hereinafter referred to as ‘‘[G&J]’’; previous columns will be referred to by their dates). A background equivalent to that provided by [G&J] is assumed, and, when appropriate, cross-references will be given to that book and the list of problems (NP-complete and harder) presented there. Readers who have results they would like mentioned (NP-hardness, PSPACE-hardness, polynomial-time-solvability, etc.) or open problems they would like publicized, should

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Ronald V. Book, 1937-1997.

Counting classes consist of languages defined in terms of the number of accepting computations of nondeterministic polynomial-time Turing machines. Well known examples of counting classes are NP, co-NP, \PhiP, and PP. Every counting class is a subset of P #P[1] , the class of languages computable in polynomial time using a single call to an oracle capable of determining the number of accepting paths of an NP machine. Using closure properties of #P, we systematically develop a complexity theory for counting classes defined in terms of thresholds and moduli. An unexpected result is that MOD k iP = MOD k P for prime k. Finally, we improve a result of Cai and Hemachandra by showing that recognizing languages in the class Few is as easy as distinguishing uniquely satisfiable formulas from unsatisfiable formulas (or detecting unique solutions, as in [28]). 1. Introduction Valiant [27] defined the class #P of functions whose values equal the number of accepting paths of polynomial-time bo...

We study classes of sets and functions computable by algorithms that make a limited number of queries to an oracle. We distinguish between queries made in parallel (each question being independent of the answers to the others, as in a truth-table reduction) and queries made in serial (each question being permitted to depend on the answers to the previous questions, as in a Turing reduction). We define computability by a set of functions, and we show that it captures the information-theoretic aspects of computability by a fixed number of queries to an oracle. Using that concept, we prove a very powerful result, the Nonspeedup Theorem, which states that 2 n parallel queries to any fixed nonrecursive oracle cannot be answered by an algorithm that makes only n queries to any oracle whatsoever. This is the tightest general result possible. A corollary is the intuitively obvious, but nontrivial result that additional parallel queries to an oracle allow us to compute additional functions; t...

The class \Theta p 2 of languages polynomial-time truth-table reducible to sets in NP has a wide range of different characterizations. We consider several functional versions of \Theta p 2 based on these characterizations. We show that in this way the three function classes FL NP log , FP NP log , and FP NP k are obtained. In contrast to the language case the function classes seem to all be different. We give evidence in support of this fact by showing that FL NP log coincides with any of the other classes then L = P, and that the equality of the classes FP NP log and FP NP k would imply that the number of nondeterministic bits needed for the computation of any problem in NP can be reduced by a polylogarithmic factor, and that the problem can be computed deterministically with a sub-exponential time bound of order 2 n O(1= log log n) . 1 Introduction The study of nondeterministic computation is a central topic in structural complexity theory. The acceptance mechanism of...

We investigate function classes h#Pi f which are defined as the closure of #P under the operation f and a set of known closure properties of #P, e.g. summation over an exponential range. First, we examine operations f under which #P is closed (i.e., h#Pi f = #P) in every relativization. We obtain the following complete characterization of these operations: #P is closed under f in every relativization if and only if f is a finite sum of binomial coefficients over constants. Second, we characterize operations f with respect to their power in the counting context in the unrelativized case. For closure properties f of #P, we have h#Pi f = #P. The other end of the range is marked by operations f for which h#Pi f corresponds to the counting hierarchy. We call these operations counting hard and give general criteria for hardness. For many operations f we show that h#Pi f corresponds to some subclass C of the counting hierarchy. This will then imply that #P is closed under f if and only if ...

Well known complexity classes such as NP, co-NP, \PhiP (PARITY-P), and PP are produced by considering a nondeterministic polynomial time Turing machine N and defining acceptance in terms of the number of accepting paths in N . That is, they are subclasses of P #P[1] . Other interesting classes such as MOD k P and C=P are also subclasses of P #P[1] . Many relations among these classes are unresolved. Of course, these classes coincide if P = PSPACE. However, we develop a simple combinatorial technique for constructing oracles that separate counting classes. Our results suggest that it will be difficult to resolve the unknown relationships among different counting classes. In addition to presenting new oracle separations, we simplify several previous constructions. 1. Introduction In [26], Valiant defined the class #P of counting functions. Definition 1 [Valiant] #P is the class of functions for which there exists a nondeterministic polynomial-time Turing machine N such that f(x) is...

We investigate the computational complexity of the Boolean Isomorphism problem (BI): on input of two Boolean formulas F and G decide whether there exists a permutation of the variables of G such that F and G become equivalent. Our main result is a one-round interactive proof for BI, where the verifier has access to an NP oracle. To obtain this, we use a recent result from learning theory by Bshouty et.al. that Boolean formulas can be learned probabilistically with equivalence queries and access to an NP oracle. As a consequence, BI cannot be \Sigma p 2 complete unless the Polynomial Hierarchy collapses. This solves an open problem posed in [BRS95]. Further properties of BI are shown: BI has And- and Or-functions, the counting version, #BI, can be computed in polynomial time relative to BI, and BI is self-reducible.

this paper was presented at the 16th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming [3]

Abstract. The paper analyzes in terms of polynomial time many-one reductions the computational complexity of several natural equivalence relations on Boolean functions which derive from replacing variables by expressions, one of them is the Boolean isomorphism relation. Most of these computational problems turn out to be between co-NP and � p 2. 1.