This book presents an up-to-date, unified treatment of research in bounded arithmetic and complexity of propositional logic, with emphasis on independence proofs and lower bound proofs. The author discusses the deep connections between logic and complexity theory and lists a number of intriguing open problems. An introduction to the basics of logic and complexity theory is followed by discussion of important results in propositional proof systems and systems of bounded arithmetic. More advanced topics are then treated, including polynomial simulations and (...) conservativity results, various witnessing theorems, the translation of bounded formulas (and their proofs) into propositional ones, the method of random partial restrictions and its applications, direct independence proofs, complete systems of partial relations, lower bounds to the size of constant-depth propositional proofs, the method of Boolean valuations, the issue of hard tautologies and optimal proof systems, combinatorics and complexity theory within bounded arithmetic, and relations to complexity issues of predicate calculus. Students and researchers in mathematical logic and complexity theory will find this comprehensive treatment an excellent guide to this expanding interdisciplinary area. (shrink)

A notion of feasible function of finite type based on the typed lambda calculus is introduced which generalizes the familiar type 1 polynomial-time functions. An intuitionistic theory IPVω is presented for reasoning about these functions. Interpretations for IPVω are developed both in the style of Kreisel's modified realizability and Gödel's Dialectica interpretation. Applications include alternative proofs for Buss's results concerning the classical first-order system S12 and its intuitionistic counterpart IS12 as well as proofs of some of Buss's conjectures concerning IS12, (...) and a proof that IS12 cannot prove that extended Frege systems are not polynomially bounded. (shrink)

People have always been interested in numbers, in particular the natural numbers. Of course, we all have an intuitive notion of what these numbers are. In the late 19th century mathematicians, such as Grassmann, Frege and Dedekind, gave definitions for these familiar objects. Since then the development of axiomatic schemes for arithmetic have played a fundamental role in a logical understanding of mathematics. There has been a need for some time for a monograph on the metamathematics of first-order arithmetic. The (...) aim of the book by Hajek and Pudlak is to cover some of the most important results in the study of a first order theory of the natural numbers, called Peano arithmetic and its fragments (subtheories). The field is quite active, but only a small part of the results has been covered in monographs. This book is divided into three parts. In Part A, the authors develop parts of mathematics and logic in various fragments. Part B is devoted to incompleteness. Part C studies systems that have the induction schema restricted to bounded formulas (Bounded Arithmetic). One highlight of this section is the relation of provability to computational complexity. The study of formal systems for arithmetic is a prerequisite for understanding results such as Gödel's theorems. This book is intended for those who want to learn more about such systems and who want to follow current research in the field. The book contains a bibliography of approximately 1000 items. (shrink)