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Recap: 18.405J/6.841J Advanced Complexity Theory

This lecture discusses probabilistically checkable proofs (PCPs) and some of their applications. It shows that: 1) NEXP = PCP(Poly(n), Poly(n)), meaning that proofs for languages in non-deterministic exponential time can be verified in polynomial time with randomized access. 2) NP = PCP(O(log n), O(1)), implying that problems in NP have proofs that can be verified by querying a constant number of bits with logarithmic randomness. 3) This PCP characterization can be used to show that approximating 3SAT within a factor of 7/6 is NP-hard, by reducing the problem to verifying a short PCP with few queries

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55 views2 pages

Recap: 18.405J/6.841J Advanced Complexity Theory

This lecture discusses probabilistically checkable proofs (PCPs) and some of their applications. It shows that: 1) NEXP = PCP(Poly(n), Poly(n)), meaning that proofs for languages in non-deterministic exponential time can be verified in polynomial time with randomized access. 2) NP = PCP(O(log n), O(1)), implying that problems in NP have proofs that can be verified by querying a constant number of bits with logarithmic randomness. 3) This PCP characterization can be used to show that approximating 3SAT within a factor of 7/6 is NP-hard, by reducing the problem to verifying a short PCP with few queries

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18.405J/6.

841J Advanced Complexity Theory


Lecturer: Dan Spielman

April 12, 2001


Scribe: Ronnie Misra

Lecture 17

Recap
Last time, we discussed the class of \Arthur/Merln games". Recall that:

De nition 1 L 2 AM(k(n)) if 9 a PTIME veri er A and a polynomial p(n) s.t. x 2 L =) 9 a p(n)-prover P s.t. Pr (A ! P) accepts] > 2 3 1 x2 = L =) 8 p(n)-provers P, Pr (A ! P) accepts] < 3
In this lecture, we will show some applications of IP, and discuss the class PCP.

Graph Isomorphism
Although there are no known PTIME algorithms for graph isomorphism, we can show that ISO is probably not NP-complete:

In fact, the AM speedup theorem says that: AM(k(n)) AM( (2 ) + 1) =) AM(k) AM 8 constants k =) MAM AM We also showed in the problem set that AM ( = BP NP P )
k n

Theorem 2 If ISO is NP-complete, then 3 = 3 . Proof In the problem set, we showed that MA AM (proved as NP BP P BP NP P).
P P

NP/poly.

ISO is NP-complete =) NISO is coNP-complete =) coNP MAM =) coNP AM =) coNP NP/poly =) 3 = 3 .

Probabilistically checkable proofs


We would like to describe a \tough veri er" that accepts a proof that can be \spot checked".

De nition 3 A (R(n), Q(n)) veri er is a probabilistic, PTIME oracle TM M that


P

gets R(n) random bits is limited to Q(n) bits from its oracle P

De nition 4 L 2 PCP(R(n), Q(n)) if 9 a (R(n), Q(n)) veri er V s.t. x 2 L =) 9 s.t. Pr V (x) accepts] = 1 x2 = L =) 8 , Pr V (x) accepts] < 1 2
Here, is the probabilistically checkable proof (PCP). Note that we don't really think of as an oracle. Instead, we are using OTM notation just as a way to show that V gets access to random bits of .

Theorem 5 NEXP = PCP(Poly(n), Poly(n))


Even though proofs for languages in NEXP are exponentially long, randomized access allows such proofs to be veri ed in PTIME.

Theorem 6 NP = PCP(O(log n), O(1))


As a consequence, we can use PCP to show that some approximation problems are NP-hard.

3SAT approximation is NP-hard


3SAT NP = PCP(O(log n), O(1)) =) 9 a (O(log n), O(1)) veri er for 3SAT. Assume V is non-adaptive, or that it ips R = O(log n) coins, then queries the proof at Q = O(1) places determined only by these random bits. (If V is adaptive, we can construct a non-adaptive version this version may use exponentially more queries, but this is still a constant.) On input , assume V gets random bits r 2 f0 1g . Let q 1 : : : q denote the indices of the Q bits of that V queries. Thus, if = 1 2 : : : , V reads 1 : : : . and some For each r 2 f0 1g , construct a small 3SAT instance on inputs 1 : : : auxilliary bits. Assume has at most S clauses. Since Q = O(1), S = O(1). should be satis ed have values that would cause V to accept. when 1 : : : Let = 01 is polynomial in the size of , and has inputs 1 : : : as well as all the auxilliary bits. also has some special properties: 2 3SAT =) 2 3SAT, since V will accept for any r 2 f0 1g 1 2 = 3SAT =) Pr V rejects] > 2 01 1 =) 8 , at most 2 of the clauses are satis able (from aux bits) =) 8 , 8 aux, there is at least one unsatis ed clause in at least 1 clauses 2 of the =) at least a 21 fraction of the clauses of are unsatis able =) the maximum fraction of satis able clauses of is (1 - 21 ) =) approximating 3SAT within a factor of 41 is NP-hard, where S is some constant dependant on Q
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