Assuming that the class TAUT of tautologies of propositional logic has no almost optimal algorithm, we show that every algorithm $\mathbb A$ deciding TAUT has a polynomial time computable sequence witnessing that $\mathbb A$ is not almost optimal. The result extends to every $\Pi_t^p$-complete problem with $t\ge 1$; however, we ... more >>>

Among others, refining the methods of [Fortnow and Santhanam, ECCC Report TR07-096] we improve a result of this paper and show for any parameterized problem with a ``linear weak OR'' and with NP-hard underlying classical problem that there is no polynomial reduction from the problem to itself that assigns to ... more >>>