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In the paper Complexity of the Frobenius Problem by Ramírez-Alfonsín, a problem was proved to be NP-complete using Turing reductions. Is that possible? How exactly? I thought this was only possible by a polynomial time many one reduction. Are there any references about this?

Are there two different notions of NP-hardness, even NP-completeness? But then I am confused, because from a practical viewpoint, if I want to show that my problem is NP-hard, which do I use?

They started the description as follows:

A polynomial time Turing reduction from a problem $P_1$ to another problem $P_2$ is an algorithm A which solves $P_1$ by using a hypothetical subroutine A' for solving $P_2$ such that, if A' were a polynomial time algorithm for $P_2$ then A would be a polynomial time algorithm for $P_1$. We say that $P_1$ can be Turing reduced to $P_2$.

A problem $P_1$ is called (Turing) NP-hard if there is an NP-complete decision problem $P_2$ such that $P_2$ can be Turing reduced to $P_1$.

And then they use such a Turing reduction from an NP-complete problem to show NP-completeness of some other problem.

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user2145167
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2 Answers2

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There are (at least) two different notions of NP-hardness. The usual notion, which uses Karp reductions, states that a language $L$ is NP-hard if every language in NP Karp-reduces to $L$. If we change Karp reductions to Cook reductions, we get a different notion. Every language which is Karp-NP-hard is also Cook-NP-hard, but the converse is probably false. Suppose that NP is different from coNP, and take your favorite NP-complete language $L$. Then the complement of $L$ is Cook-NP-hard but not Karp-NP-hard.

The reason that $\overline{L}$ is Cook-NP-hard is the following: take any language $M$ in NP. Since $L$ is NP-hard, there is a polytime function $f$ such that $x \in M$ iff $f(x) \in L$ iff $f(x) \notin \overline{L}$. A Cook reduction from $M$ to $\overline{L}$ takes $x$, computes $f(x)$, checks whether $f(x) \in L$, and outputs the converse.

The reason that $\overline{L}$ is not NP-hard (assuming NP is different from coNP) is the following. Suppose $\overline{L}$ were NP-hard. Then for every language $M$ in coNP, there is a polytime reduction $f$ such that $x \in \overline{M}$ iff $f(x) \in \overline{L}$, or in other words, $x \in M$ iff $f(x) \in L$. Since $L$ is in NP, this shows that $M$ is in NP, and so coNP$\subseteq$NP. This immediately implies that NP$\subseteq$coNP, and so NP=coNP.

If some Cook-NP-hard language $L$ is in P, then P=NP: for any language $M$ in NP, use the Cook reduction to $L$ to give a polytime algorithm for $M$. So in that sense, Cook-NP-complete languages are also "hardest in NP". On the other hand, it is easy to see that Cook-NP-hard=Cook-coNP-hard: a Cook reduction for $L$ can be converted to a Cook reduction for $\overline{L}$. So we lose some precision by using Cook reductions.

There are probably other shortcomings to using Cook reductions, but I'll leave that to other answerers.

Nick Hu
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Yuval Filmus
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  • I have not yet completely understood all of this I must say. But I have another question, maybe you can answer this (since there are not so many other answers): what if I have a Turing red. from NP-complete problem A to some problem B and a Karp red. from problem B to probplem C. Does that establish NP-completeness of problem C (membership is no problem)? And in general, can I call the problem B NP-hard or rather (Turing) NP-hard? Thanks! – user2145167 Apr 10 '13 at 16:42
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    Two Karp reductions compose to a Karp reduction, and two Cook reductions compose to a Cook reduction. Since a Karp reduction is also a Cook reduction, if you compose a Karp reduction and a Cook reduction then you get a Cook reduction. But in general you don't get a Karp reduction. – Yuval Filmus Apr 10 '13 at 17:01
  • @YuvalFilmus, could you please elaborate what you wanted to mean by $x \in M$ iff $f(x) \in L$ iff $f(x) \notin \overline{L}$? – Omar Shehab Sep 16 '16 at 20:36
  • A Karp-reduction from $M$ to $L$ is a function $f$ (polytime in this case) such that $x \in M$ iff $f(x) \in L$. For every $f,x$ it always holds that $f(x) \in L$ iff $f(x) \notin \overline{L}$, where $\overline{L}$ is the complement of $L$ (with respect to the range of $f$). – Yuval Filmus Sep 16 '16 at 21:21
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That's fine. A polynomial-time Turing reduction is a Cook reduction (as in Cook-Levin theorem) and reducing an NP-complete problem to the new problem gives NP-hardness (as does a polynomial-tiem many-one reduction, AKA Karp reduction). Indeed, Karp reductions are just restricted Turing reductions anyway.

Where they differ (with regards to this question) is in showing membership. A Karp reduction from a problem to a problem in NP shows the first is in NP. A Cook reduction in the same direction doesn't.

Luke Mathieson
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  • Thanks. I wasn't even aware that one shows membership by explicitely using a Karp reduction. But it makes sense. But one can show NP-membership by using a Turing reductions in both directions, right? – user2145167 Apr 08 '13 at 04:47
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    @user2145167 no, Yuval's answer gives the full story here, but in short, Cook reductions are weaker, so allow more in - e.g. you can go from any co-NP problem via a Cook reduction to any NP-complete problem, which is not true for Karp reductions. – Luke Mathieson Apr 08 '13 at 06:28