Abstract
We explore a computational approach to proving intractability of certain counting problems. More specifically we study the complexity of Holant of 3-regular graphs. These problems include concrete problems such as counting the number of vertex covers or independent sets for 3-regular graphs. The high level principle of our approach is algebraic, which provides sufficient conditions for interpolation to succeed. Another algebraic component is holographic reductions. We then analyze in detail polynomial maps on ℝ2 induced by some combinatorial constructions. These maps define sufficiently complicated dynamics of ℝ2 that we can only analyze them computationally. We use both numerical computation (as intuitive guidance) and symbolic computation (as proof theoretic verification) to derive that a certain collection of combinatorial constructions, in myriad combinations, fulfills the algebraic requirements of proving #P-hardness. The final result is a dichotomy theorem for a class of counting problems.
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Cai, JY., Lu, P., Xia, M. (2009). A Computational Proof of Complexity of Some Restricted Counting Problems. In: Chen, J., Cooper, S.B. (eds) Theory and Applications of Models of Computation. TAMC 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5532. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02017-9_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02017-9_17
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