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Questions tagged [co-np]

Question about the complexity class that is a complement of NP, i.e. decision problems where the "no" instances can be accepted by a nondeterministic Turing machine that runs in time polynomial in the length of the input.

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Proof that TAUT is coNP-complete (or that a problem is coNP-complete if its complement is NP-complete)

I need to prove that TAUT is coNP-complete. I showed that $\text{TAUT} \in \text{coNP}$ by reducing $\text{SAT}$ to $\overline{\text{TAUT}}$. However, I cannot figure out how to prove that every problem in coNP can be reduced to $\text{TAUT}$ in…
just.kidding
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Why doesn't a time cutoff convert NP problems into co-NP?

Suppose you have an NP problem, and a polynomial time verifier which accepts valid solutions within $f(n)$ operations. You make a tweak to the verifier program, so that if it takes more than $f(n)$ operations, it unconditionally rejects. Then you…
Craig Gidney
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Does integer programming $\in$ NP imply $NP=CoNP$?

Although it is relatively simple to see that integer linear programming is NP-hard, whether it lies in NP is a bit harder. Therefore, I'm wondering whether the following reasoning shows that $ILP\in NP$ implies $NP=CoNP$. To be precise, I am…
Discrete lizard
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Interactive proofs for coNP languages proof clarification

I was reading a paper by Lance Fortnow and Michael Sipser. "Are there interactive protocols for co-NP languages?" Information Processing Letters 28 v5 (1988), pp. 249-251. An online version of the paper can be found at…
Markandeya
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Why are $\sf{P} \ne \sf{NP}$ and $\sf{NP} \ne \sf{coNP}$ compatible?

If $\sf{P} \ne \sf{NP}$ and $\sf{NP} \ne \sf{coNP}$ are both true then $\sf{P}$, $\sf{NP}$ and $\sf{coNP}$ are three separate complexity classes. In other words, verifying a solution, finding a solution and proving there is no solution to a formula…
user102180
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Is 3-UNSAT problem coNP-complete?

The 3-SAT problem, i.e. the problem whether a given Boolean formula consisting of clauses of at most 3 literals is known to be NP-complete. Then it’s complement, i.e. whether such a formula is unsatisfiable, is coNP-complete, right?
Gorid
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An obvious approach to explaining NP != coNP, how far has it been pushed?

A recent question made me think about an obvious approach for circumventing the "algorithm is allowed to do anything" problem, when proving lower bounds. Instead of starting with a simple looking NP-complete problem, start with a powerful looking…
Thomas Klimpel
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Why is NP not trivially equal to Co-NP? (a.k.a. what does Co-NP mean exactly?)

I've been trying to wrap my head around Co-NP, and how it's different to NP, but I am having some trouble. Co-NP is defined by Wikipedia as this: "A decision problem $\mathcal{X}$ is a member of co-NP if and only if its complement…
diegovb
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Showing the language of all graphs that are both 4-colorable and not 3-colorable is coNP-hard

As the title states, I need to prove that the language of all graphs that are both 4-colorable and not 3-colorable is coNP-hard. I'm not looking for a solution but a clue or something to help me develop the intuition for coNP questions would be very…
OE.omergunr100
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Why isn't SAT in coNP?

I understand why NP=coNP if SAT is in coNP (How do I prove that SAT in coNP implies NP=coNP?). But I'm missing why the following machine doesn't turing recognize the complementary of SAT: Given a turing machine M that recognizes SAT, the following…
wamitw
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Complete problems in NP∩coNP

I often read in Complexity literature that NP∩coNP is unlikely to have any complete problems. Is that unlikelihood "proved" ? By proved, I mean that there would be a theorem that would relate the existence of such a problem to, by instance, the…
wazdra
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"Insensitive" CNF/DNF SAT always satisfying same number of clauses

I came across this paper, which mentions an interesting variation on SAT: We call a CNF formula F insensitive if every total assignment α satisfies the same number of clauses of F. I hadn't come across this before. You can easily define the same…
Mike Battaglia
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An obvious approach to NP = coNP, is there a counterexample?

Let's try to solve "co3SAT" with an NTM in polynomial time. It seems we need, more or less, to guess a proof that the formula is unsatisfiable i.e. derive a contradiction. We've got a formula in conjunctive normal form, a big AND of OR clauses,…
Brian
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Proof that $NP \cap coNP = P$

Suppose I want to prove that $NP \cap coNP = P$. Since clearly $P\subseteq NP \cap coNP$, I need to prove the opposite direction, i.e., every problem in $NP \cap coNP$ has a polynomial-time algorithm. Is there a shorter way to prove this equality…
Erel Segal-Halevi
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Is this a correct way to show that a problem is coNP-complete?

Let $A$ be a problem that I want to show it is coNP-complete. I know I could just show its complement $\bar{A}$ is NP-complete or that $\bar{A}$ is in NP and for some coNP-complete problem $Q$, show that $Q$ can be Karp-reduced to $A$. But I…
RTK
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