Counting hierarchy

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In complexity theory, the counting hierarchy is a hierarchy of complexity classes. It is analogous to the polynomial hierarchy, but with NP replaced with PP. It was defined in 1986 by Klaus Wagner. [1] [2]

More precisely, the zero-th level is C0P = P, and the (n+1)-th level is Cn+1P = PPCnP (i.e., PP with oracle Cn). [2] Thus:

The counting hierarchy is contained within PSPACE. [2] By Toda's theorem, the polynomial hierarchy PH is entirely contained in PPP, [3] and therefore in C2P = PPPP.

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2
is a complexity class, intermediate between the first and second levels of the polynomial hierarchy. A language L is in if there exists a polynomial-time predicate P such that

References

  1. Wagner, Klaus W. (1986). "The complexity of combinatorial problems with succinct input representation". Acta Informatica. 23: 325–356. doi:10.1007/BF00289117.
  2. 1 2 3 "Complexity Zoo" . Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  3. Toda, Seinosuke (October 1991). "PP is as Hard as the Polynomial-Time Hierarchy". SIAM Journal on Computing. 20 (5): 865–877. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.121.1246 . doi:10.1137/0220053. ISSN   0097-5397.

Further reading