The Complexity of Computing the Size of an Interval

  • Authors:
  • Lane A. Hemaspaandra;Christopher M. Homan;Sven Kosub;Klaus W. Wagner

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-;-;-

  • Venue:
  • SIAM Journal on Computing
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Given a p-order $A$ over a universe of strings (i.e., a transitive, reflexive, antisymmetric relation such that if $(x, y) \in A$, then $|x|$ is polynomially bounded by $|y|$), an interval size function of $A$ returns, for each string $x$ in the universe, the number of strings in the interval between strings $b(x)$ and $t(x)$ (with respect to $A$), where $b(x)$ and $t(x)$ are functions that are polynomial-time computable in the length of $x$. By choosing sets of interval size functions based on feasibility requirements for their underlying p-orders, we obtain new characterizations of complexity classes. We prove that the set of all interval size functions whose underlying p-orders are polynomial-time decidable is exactly &mesh;P. We show that the interval size functions for orders with polynomial-time adjacency checks are closely related to the class FPSPACE(poly). Indeed, FPSPACE(poly) is exactly the class of all nonnegative functions that are an interval size function minus a polynomial-time computable function. We study two important functions in relation to interval size functions. The function &mesh;DIV maps each natural number $n$ to the number of nontrivial divisors of $n$. We show that &mesh;DIV is an interval size function of a polynomial-time decidable partial p-order with polynomial-time adjacency checks. The function &mesh;MONSAT maps each monotone boolean formula $F$ to the number of satisfying assignments of $F$. We show that &mesh;MONSAT is an interval size function of a polynomial-time decidable total p-order with polynomial-time adjacency checks. Finally, we explore the related notion of cluster computation.