We study the relationship between the existence of optimal proof systems and recursive jump operators, two central open problems in proof complexity. For a set L, an optimal proof system is a strongest proof system in terms of proof length, whereas a recursive jump operator uniformly transforms any proof system for L into a stronger one with respect to proof length, thereby witnessing non-optimality. It is clear that the existence of a recursive jump operator for L rules out optimal proof systems for L. Khaniki (FOCS 2024) is interested in the converse of this implication and explicitly poses the following question, where TAUT denotes the set of propositional tautologies. - Q: Does the non-existence of optimal proof systems for TAUT imply the existence of recursive jump operators for TAUT? We generalize and address this question from both a relativized and an unrelativized perspective. We show that proving a positive answer for Q is provably hard by constructing the following oracle. - O: The polynomial-time hierarchy is infinite, TAUT has no optimal proof systems, and TAUT has no recursive jump operators. This shows that Khaniki’s question can not be answered in the positive by relativizable means, even under the standard complexity-theoretic assumption that the polynomial-time hierarchy is infinite. In contrast, we obtain positive results when the question Q is posed for sets different from TAUT. We prove that the existence of recursive jump operators is upward closed under ≤_m^p-reducibility, a result that so far was only known for the non-existence of optimal proof systems. Furthermore, we show that the sets known to have no optimal proof systems by Messner (STACS 1999) in fact admit recursive jump operators. Thus, essentially all sets currently known to have no optimal proof systems have recursive jump operators.

We study the complexity of computing second solutions for NP search problems, i. e., given a problem instance x and a valid solution y, we have to find another valid solution y'. Our main result shows that for typical NP decision problems, the complexity of computing second solutions is completely determined by the choice of the type of solution (i. e., the specific function problem), but independent of the underlying decision problem. More precisely, we show that for every X ∈ NP that is 1-paddable (a weak form of paddability), different choices of the type of solution lead to different second solution problems, which altogether have the same degree structure as the entire class of NP search problems (FNP). In fact, each degree of difficulty within FNP does occur as a second solution problem for X. This proves that typical NP decision problems have no intrinsic complexity w. r. t. the search for a second solution, but only the specification of the type of solution determines this complexity. This explains the empirical observation that the difficulty of computing second solutions strongly depends on the formulation of the problem. Moreover, we show that the complexities of a search problem and its second solution variant are independent in the following sense: For all search problems A and B representing two degrees of difficulty, there exists a search problem C such that 1) C is as difficult as A and 2) computing second solutions for C is as difficult as B.

We study the existence of optimal and p-optimal proof systems for classes in the Boolean hierarchy over $\mathrm{NP}$. Our main results concern $\mathrm{DP}$, i.e., the second level of this hierarchy: If all sets in $\mathrm{DP}$ have p-optimal proof systems, then all sets in $\mathrm{coDP}$ have p-optimal proof systems. The analogous implication for optimal proof systems fails relative to an oracle. As a consequence, we clarify such implications for all classes $\mathcal{C}$ and $\mathcal{D}$ in the Boolean hierarchy over $\mathrm{NP}$: either we can prove the implication or show that it fails relative to an oracle. Furthermore, we show that the sets $\mathrm{SAT}$ and $\mathrm{TAUT}$ have p-optimal proof systems, if and only if all sets in the Boolean hierarchy over $\mathrm{NP}$ have p-optimal proof systems which is a new characterization of a conjecture studied by Pudlák.

We construct an oracle relative to which $\mathrm{P} = \mathrm{NP} \cap \mathrm{coNP}$, but there are no many-one complete sets in $\mathrm{UP}$, no many-one complete disjoint $\mathrm{NP}$-pairs, and no many-one complete disjoint $\mathrm{coNP}$-pairs. This contributes to a research program initiated by Pudlák [Pud17], which studies incompleteness in the finite domain and which mentions the construction of such oracles as open problem. The oracle shows that $\mathsf{NP}\cap\mathsf{coNP}$ is indispensable in the list of hypotheses studied by Pudlák. Hence one should consider stronger hypotheses, in order to find a universal one.