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Proof Complexity of Natural Formulas via Communication Arguments Itsykson, Dmitry Riazanov, Artur bit pigeonhole principle disjointness multiparty communication complexity perfect matching proof complexity randomized communication complexity Resolution over linear equations tree-like proofs A canonical communication problem Search(φ) is defined for every unsatisfiable CNF φ: an assignment to the variables of φ is partitioned among the communicating parties, they are to find a clause of φ falsified by this assignment. Lower bounds on the randomized k-party communication complexity of Search(φ) in the number-on-forehead (NOF) model imply tree-size lower bounds, rank lower bounds, and size-space tradeoffs for the formula φ in the semantic proof system T^{cc}(k,c) that operates with proof lines that can be computed by k-party randomized communication protocol using at most c bits of communication [Göös and Pitassi, 2014]. All known lower bounds on Search(φ) (e.g. [Beame et al., 2007; Göös and Pitassi, 2014; Russell Impagliazzo et al., 1994]) are realized on ad-hoc formulas φ (i.e. they were introduced specifically for these lower bounds). We introduce a new communication complexity approach that allows establishing proof complexity lower bounds for natural formulas. First, we demonstrate our approach for two-party communication and apply it to the proof system Res(⊕) that operates with disjunctions of linear equalities over 𝔽₂ [Dmitry Itsykson and Dmitry Sokolov, 2014]. Let a formula PM_G encode that a graph G has a perfect matching. If G has an odd number of vertices, then PM_G has a tree-like Res(⊕)-refutation of a polynomial-size [Dmitry Itsykson and Dmitry Sokolov, 2014]. It was unknown whether this is the case for graphs with an even number of vertices. Using our approach we resolve this question and show a lower bound 2^{Ω(n)} on size of tree-like Res(⊕)-refutations of PM_{K_{n+2,n}}. Then we apply our approach for k-party communication complexity in the NOF model and obtain a Ω(1/k 2^{n/2k - 3k/2}) lower bound on the randomized k-party communication complexity of Search(BPHP^{M}_{2ⁿ}) w.r.t. to some natural partition of the variables, where BPHP^{M}_{2ⁿ} is the bit pigeonhole principle and M = 2ⁿ+2^{n(1-1/k)}. In particular, our result implies that the bit pigeonhole requires exponential tree-like Th(k) proofs, where Th(k) is the semantic proof system operating with polynomial inequalities of degree at most k and k = 𝒪(log^{1-ε} n) for some ε > 0. We also show that BPHP^{2ⁿ+1}_{2ⁿ} superpolynomially separates tree-like Th(log^{1-ε} m) from tree-like Th(log m), where m is the number of variables in the refuted formula. Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik Dmitry Itsykson and Artur Riazanov 2021 Is Part Of LIPIcs, Volume 200, 36th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2021) InProceedings Text doc-type:ResearchArticle publishedVersion application/pdf doi:10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2021.3 urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-142773 https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2021.3 eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode