2023/02/15 by Dutta, Malay, Mahanta, Anjana K.
#Computational Complexity (cs.CC) #F.2 #FOS: Computer and information sciences
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2302.09024
In this paper we propose a new approach for developing a proof that P=NP. We propose to use a polynomial-time reduction of a NP-complete problem to Linear Programming. Earlier such attempts used polynomial-time transformation which is a special form of reduction that uses a subroutine for the easier Linear Programming Problem only once. We use multiple calls to the subroutine increasing considerably the effectiveness of the reduction. Further the NP-complete problem we choose is also unusual. We define a special kind of acyclic directed graph which we call a time graph. We define Hamiltonian time paths in such graphs and also the Hamiltonian Time Path problem (HTPATH) and prove that it is NP-complete. We then state a conjecture whose proof will immediately lead to a polynomial-time algorithm for this problem proving P=NP.