On minimal unsatisfiability and time-space trade-offs for k-DNF resolution

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A well-known theorem by Tarsi states that a minimally unsatisfiable CNF formula with m clauses can have at most m - 1 variables, and this bound is exact. In the context of proving lower bounds on proof space in k-DNF resolution, [Ben-Sasson and Nordström 2009] extended the concept of minimal unsatisfiability to sets of k-DNF formulas and proved that a minimally unsatisfiable k-DNF set with m formulas can have at most (mk) k + 1 variables. This result is far from tight, however, since they could only present explicit constructions of minimally unsatisfiable sets with Ω(mk 2) variables. In the current paper, we revisit this combinatorial problem and significantly improve the lower bound to (Ω(m)) k , which almost matches the upper bound above. Furthermore, using similar ideas we show that the analysis of the technique in [Ben-Sasson and Nordström 2009] for proving time-space separations and trade-offs for k-DNF resolution is almost tight. This means that although it is possible, or even plausible, that stronger results than in [Ben-Sasson and Nordström 2009] should hold, a fundamentally different approach would be needed to obtain such results.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAutomata, Languages and Programming - 38th International Colloquium, ICALP 2011, Proceedings
Number of pages12
Publication date2011
EditionPART 1
Pages642-653
ISBN (Print)9783642220050
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011
Event38th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming, ICALP 2011 - Zurich, Switzerland
Duration: 4 Jul 20118 Jul 2011

Conference

Conference38th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming, ICALP 2011
LandSwitzerland
ByZurich
Periode04/07/201108/07/2011
SponsorSwiss National Science Foundation, Google
SeriesLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
NumberPART 1
Volume6755 LNCS
ISSN0302-9743

ID: 251870868