We study the proof complexity of Paris-Harrington's Large Ramsey Theorem for bi-colorings of graphs. We prove a non-trivial conditional lower bound in Resolution and a quasi-polynomial upper bound in bounded-depth Frege. The lower bound is conditional on a (very reasonable) hardness assumption for a weak (quasi-polynomial) Pigeonhole principle in RES (2). We show that under such assumption, there is no refutation of the Paris-Harrington formulas of size quasi-polynomial in the number of propositional variables. The proof technique for the lower bound extends the idea of using a combinatorial principle to blow-up a counterexample for another combinatorial principle beyond the threshold of inconsistency. A strong link with the proof complexity of an unbalanced Ramsey principle for triangles is established. This is obtained by adapting some constructions due to Erdos and Mills.

Paris-Harrington tautologies / Carlucci, Lorenzo; Galesi, Nicola; Lauria, Massimo. - ELETTRONICO. - (2011), pp. 93-103. (Intervento presentato al convegno 26th Annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC) tenutosi a San Jose, CA nel JUN 08-10, 2011) [10.1109/ccc.2011.17].

Paris-Harrington tautologies

CARLUCCI, LORENZO;GALESI, NICOLA;LAURIA, MASSIMO
2011

Abstract

We study the proof complexity of Paris-Harrington's Large Ramsey Theorem for bi-colorings of graphs. We prove a non-trivial conditional lower bound in Resolution and a quasi-polynomial upper bound in bounded-depth Frege. The lower bound is conditional on a (very reasonable) hardness assumption for a weak (quasi-polynomial) Pigeonhole principle in RES (2). We show that under such assumption, there is no refutation of the Paris-Harrington formulas of size quasi-polynomial in the number of propositional variables. The proof technique for the lower bound extends the idea of using a combinatorial principle to blow-up a counterexample for another combinatorial principle beyond the threshold of inconsistency. A strong link with the proof complexity of an unbalanced Ramsey principle for triangles is established. This is obtained by adapting some constructions due to Erdos and Mills.
2011
26th Annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC)
bounded-depth frege; proof complexity; ramsey; resolution
04 Pubblicazione in atti di convegno::04b Atto di convegno in volume
Paris-Harrington tautologies / Carlucci, Lorenzo; Galesi, Nicola; Lauria, Massimo. - ELETTRONICO. - (2011), pp. 93-103. (Intervento presentato al convegno 26th Annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC) tenutosi a San Jose, CA nel JUN 08-10, 2011) [10.1109/ccc.2011.17].
File allegati a questo prodotto
File Dimensione Formato  
Carlucci_Paris-Harrington_2011.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Documento in Post-print (versione successiva alla peer review e accettata per la pubblicazione)
Licenza: Tutti i diritti riservati (All rights reserved)
Dimensione 453.56 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
453.56 kB Adobe PDF

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/379820
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 5
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 3
social impact