A relativized hierarchy of conjunctive normal forms
is introduced, recognizable and SAT decidable in polynomial
time. The corresponding hardness parameter, the first level
of inclusion in the hierarchy, is studied in detail, admitting
several characterizations, e.g., using pebble games, the space
complexity of (relativized) tree-like ... more >>>

We propose a proof-theoretic approach for gaining evidence that certain parameterized problems are not fixed-parameter tractable. We consider proofs that witness that a given propositional formula cannot be satisfied by a truth assignment that sets at most k variables to true, considering k as the parameter. One could separate the ... more >>>