$P \ne NP$, propositional proof complexity, and resolution lower bounds for the weak pigeonhole principle
<|reference_start|>$P \ne NP$, propositional proof complexity, and resolution lower bounds for the weak pigeonhole principle: Recent results established exponential lower bounds for the length of any Resolution proof for the weak pigeonhole principle. More formally, it was proved that any Resolution proof for the weak pigeonhole principle, with $n$ holes and any number of pigeons, is of length $\Omega(2^{n^{\epsilon}})$, (for a constant $\epsilon = 1/3$). One corollary is that certain propositional formulations of the statement $P \ne NP$ do not have short Resolution proofs. After a short introduction to the problem of $P \ne NP$ and to the research area of propositional proof complexity, I will discuss the above mentioned lower bounds for the weak pigeonhole principle and the connections to the hardness of proving $P \ne NP$.<|reference_end|>
@article{raz2003$p,
    title={$P \ne NP$, propositional proof complexity, and resolution lower bounds
  for the weak pigeonhole principle},
    author={Ran Raz},
    journal={Proceedings of the ICM, Beijing 2002, vol. 3, 685--696},
    year={2003},
    archivePrefix={arXiv},
    eprint={cs/0304041},
    primaryClass={cs.CC}
}