A relativized hierarchy of conjunctive normal forms
is introduced, recognizable and SAT decidable in polynomial
time. The corresponding hardness parameter, the first level
of inclusion in the hierarchy, is studied in detail, admitting
several characterizations, e.g., using pebble games, the space
complexity of (relativized) tree-like ... more >>>

We propose a proof-theoretic approach for gaining evidence that certain parameterized problems are not fixed-parameter tractable. We consider proofs that witness that a given propositional formula cannot be satisfied by a truth assignment that sets at most k variables to true, considering k as the parameter. One could separate the ... more >>>

We show a new connection between the space measure in tree-like resolution and the reversible pebble game in graphs. Using this connection we provide several formula classes for which there is a logarithmic factor separation between the space complexity measure in tree-like and general resolution. We show that these separations ... more >>>

We show that tree-like resolution is not automatable in time $n^{o(\log n)}$ unless ETH is false. This implies that, under ETH, the algorithm given by Beame and Pitassi (FOCS 1996) that automates tree-like resolution in time $n^{O(\log n)}$ is optimal. We also provide a simpler proof of the result of ... more >>>

We exhibit supercritical trade-off for monotone circuits, showing that there are functions computable by small circuits for which any circuit must have depth super-linear or even super-polynomial in the number of variables, far exceeding the linear worst-case upper bound. We obtain similar trade-offs in proof complexity, where we establish the ... more >>>