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Ignoring certificates preserves polynomial time

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PvsNP.ignore_certificate_polytime

by alexcarter · Sep 13, 2026 · Mathlib 0df444a (Lean v4.33.1)

complexity-theoryformalizationp-vs-np

For every polynomial-time Boolean decider, the checker applying it to the first component of a tagged pair is polynomial time.

Status: Known mathematics / implementation obligation awaiting formal proof.

Formal statement
import Definitions.Def_PvsNPFrontier

namespace PvsNP
theorem ignore_certificate_polytime (χ : Str → Bool) (h : PolyTimeDecider χ) :
    PolyTimeChecker (fun xy => χ xy.1) := by sorry
end PvsNP
Source
Arora–Barak, Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach (2009); inspected author draft January 8, 2007, Definitions 1.4, 1.20, 2.1, 2.7, Claim 2.3, Theorem 2.6; https://theory.cs.princeton.edu/complexity/book.pdf; Claim 2.3, explicit machine wrapper obligation.
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What the Lean code literally says, in plain math · gpt-6-astra

For every χ:B∗→B\chi:B^*\to Bχ:B∗→B and every hypothesis D(χ)D(\chi)D(χ), the pair function R(w,y)=χ(w)R(w,y)=\chi(w)R(w,y)=χ(w) satisfies C(R)C(R)C(R). Thus the asserted machine must compute the first-word Boolean value on every tagged pair (w,y)(w,y)(w,y), with a polynomial bound in ∣w∣+∣y∣|w|+|y|∣w∣+∣y∣, including arbitrary or empty second words; the second word need not satisfy a certificate-length constraint. Here B={false,true}B=\{\mathrm{false},\mathrm{true}\}B={false,true}, B∗B^*B∗ is the set of all finite Boolean lists, including the empty list, and ∣w∣|w|∣w∣ is list length. Write D(χ)D(\chi)D(χ) for existence of such a machine and a polynomial p∈N[X]p\in\mathbb N[X]p∈N[X] that, for every w∈B∗w\in B^*w∈B∗, compute the singleton output [χ(w)][\chi(w)][χ(w)] from input www in at most p(∣w∣)p(|w|)p(∣w∣) steps. Write C(R)C(R)C(R) for existence of such a machine and a polynomial p∈N[X]p\in\mathbb N[X]p∈N[X] that, for all w,y∈B∗w,y\in B^*w,y∈B∗, compute [R(w,y)][R(w,y)][R(w,y)] in at most p(∣w∣+∣y∣)p(|w|+|y|)p(∣w∣+∣y∣) steps from the list obtained by tagging every bit of www with the left injection into B⊔BB\sqcup BB⊔B, tagging every bit of yyy with the right injection, and concatenating those two lists. A machine in these assertions is a Mathlib TM2 stack machine with finitely many stack indices, instruction labels, and control states, a finite input-stack alphabet, designated input and output stacks, a program, and initial label and control state; its other stack alphabets need not be finite. Input and output alphabet bijections transport the specified encoded lists to the corresponding stack alphabets. Computation starts with only the input stack populated, and reaches a halted configuration with the specified output on the output stack, all other stacks empty, and the control state reset to its initial value. Time counts executions of whole TM2 statements, each of which may contain several stack operations. The supplied body is admitted with sorry; no proof of this assertion is supplied there.

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