PhilArchive
open access
Non–Evasiveness of the Generation Bottleneck and the Structural Boundary of P= NP
Recent work has shown that deterministic generation branching programs that output full witnesses are subject to exponential width lower bounds for explicit, satisfiable SAT instances. These bounds persist despite efficient verification and standard self–reductions, and they are invisible at the level of decision complexity. In this paper, we study the evasiveness of this generation bottleneck. Specifically, we ask whether the exponential lower bound can be avoided by modifying the computational model while remaining within the classical notion of deterministic polynomial–time computation. We introduce a minimal axiomatic framework for deterministic polynomial–time witness generation, formalizing determinism, uniformity, locality of transitions, and explicit output. We prove that any generation model satisfying these axioms collapses to a generation branching program with comparable dependency width. As a consequence, known exponential width lower bounds for generation branching programs are shown to be non–evasive under these axioms: they cannot be bypassed by any structure– preserving deterministic generation model. Therefore, any approach establishing P= NP via deterministic polynomial–time witness generation would necessarily require abandoning at least one of these foundational principles, such as locality, uniformity, or explicit constructive output. This work does not claim an unconditional separation of P and NP. Rather, it identifies a precise structural boundary: within the classical deterministic generation paradigm, the equality P= NP cannot be established without a substantive redefinition of what constitutes efficient deterministic computation.
Conceptio Open Archive
Analyze & explore related research in Conceptio
Connect this record directly into your research workflow or AI agent. Explore citations across open repositories, query full text, and export structured proof bundles.
This document is indexed with metadata only: full text is not available in the archive for this record. Open the official source ↗
Related documents
- P versus NP problem solution#103475
- Geometric Determination of P ≠ Np#96884
- ProofLoom: Proof-Obligation-Driven Theory Construction for Autoformalizing Research-Level Stochastic Optimization#1129567
- MechMath: Sorrifier-Driven Formal Decomposition Workflow for Automated Theorem Proving#614966
- MechMath: Sorrifier-Driven Formal Decomposition Workflow for Automated Theorem Proving#613999
Record · ID 725234
Retrieved via Conceptio: every document is proof-bundled with source, license, and retrieval metadata.
Retrieved via Conceptio: every document is proof-bundled with source, license, and retrieval metadata.
Bring this data into your agent: Connect via MCP or API · 20 free credits to start · no card required
Read the Docs → · View CLI source on GitHub · Conceptio Open Knowledge Archive
Read the Docs → · View CLI source on GitHub · Conceptio Open Knowledge Archive