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30 June, 1995
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 Nisan and Ta-Shma Symmetric Logspace (Info)

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[ii]

Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science 1995-1

 Symmetric Logspace is Closed Under
Complement
Noam Nisan Amnon Ta-Shma
30 June, 1995

Abstract
Abstract-1 We present a Logspace, many-one reduction from the undirected
s–t connectivity problem to its complement. This shows that SL =
coSL.

1 Introduction
1-1 This paper deals with the complexity class symmetric Logspace, SL, defined
by Lewis and Papadimitriou in [LP82]. This class can be defined in several
equivalent ways:

1. Languages that can be recognized by symmetric, nondeterministic Tur-

ing Machines that run within logarithmic space. See [LP82].

2. Languages that can be accepted by a uniform family of polynomial-

size contact schemes (these may also be called switching networks).
See [Raz91].

3. Languages that can be reduced in Logspace via a many-one reduction

to USTCON, the undirected s–t connectivity problem.
1-2 A major reason for the interest in this class is that it captures the com-
plexity of USTCON . The input to USTCON is an undirected graph G, and
two vertices in it, s and t. The input should be accepted if s and t are con-
nected via a path in G. The similar problem STCON , where the graph G
has directed edges, is complete for non-deterministic Logspace (NL). Several
1

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 Nisan and Ta-Shma Symmetric Logspace §2.1

combinatorial problems are known to be in SL or coSL (e.g., 2-colorability is

complete for coSL [Rei82]).
1-3 The following facts are known regarding SL relative to other complexity
classes in “the vicinity”:

L ⊆ SL ⊆ RL ⊆ NL

Here, L is the class deterministic Logspace and RL is the class of prob-

lems that can be accepted with one-sided error by a randomized Logspace
machine running in polynomial time. The containment SL ⊆ RL is the
only non-trivial one in the line above and follows directly from the random-
ized Logspace algorithm for USTCON of [AKL+ 79]. It is also known that
L
SL ⊆ SC [Nis92], SL ⊆ L [KW93], and SL ⊆ DSPACE(log1.5 n) [NSW92].
1-4 After the surprising proofs that NL is closed under complement were
found [Imm88, Sze88], Borodin et al. [BCD+ 89] asked whether the same
is true for SL. They could prove only the weaker statement, namely that
SL ⊆ coRL, and left “SL = coSL?” as an open problem. In this paper
we solve the problem in the affirmative by exhibiting a Logspace, many-one
reduction from USTCON to its complement. Quite surprisingly, the proof of
our theorem does not use inductive counting, as do the proofs of NL = coNL.
This is a simpler proof than Borodin’s, et al.; however, it uses the [AKS83]
sorting networks.

Theorem 1 SL = coSL

It should be noted that the monotone analogs (see [GS91]) of SL and coSL
are known to be different [KW88].
1-5 As a direct corollary of our theorem, we obtain LhSLi = SL where LhSLi
is the class of languages accepted by Logspace oracle Turing machines with
oracle from SL, using the oracle model of [RST84].

Corollary 1.1 LhSLi = SL

1-6 In particular, we show that both “symmetric Logspace hierarchies” (the
one defined by alternation in [Rei82] and the one defined by oracle queries
in [BPS92]) collapse to SL.

Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science 1995-1

 Nisan and Ta-Shma Symmetric Logspace §2.2

2 Proof of Theorem
2.1 Overview of proof
2.1-1 We design a many-one reduction from coUSTCON to USTCON . We start
by developing simple tools for combining reductions in subsection 2.2. In
particular, these tools will allow us to use the AKS sorting networks in order
to “count.” At this point, the main ingredient of the reduction will be the
calculation of the number of the connected components of a graph. An upper
bound to this number is easily obtained using transitive closure, while the
main idea of the proof is to obtain a lower bound by computing a spanning
forest of the graph. We do this in subsection 2.3. Everything is put together
in subsection 2.4.

2.2 Projections to USTCON

2.2-1 In this paper we will use only the simplest kind of reductions (i.e., Logspace-
uniform projection reductions [SV85]). Moreover, we will be interested only
in reductions to USTCON . We define this kind of reduction and we show
some of its basic properties in this subsection.

Notation 2.1 Given f : {0, 1}∗ → {0, 1}∗ , denote by fn : {0, 1}n → {0, 1}∗ the
restriction of f to inputs of length n. Denote by fn,k the kth bit function of
fn (i.e., if fn : {0, 1}n → {0, 1}m , then fn (~x) = (fn,1 (~x), . . . , fn,m (~x))).
 
Notation 2.2 We represent an n-node undirected graph G using n2 vari-
ables ~x = (xi,j )1≤i<j≤n s.t. xi,j is 1 iff (i, j) ∈ E(G). If f (~x) operates on
graphs,we will write f (G), meaning that the input to f is a binary vector of
n
length 2 representing G.

2.2-2 We say that f : {0, 1}∗ → {0, 1}∗ reduces to USTCON (m) if we can,
uniformly and in Logspace, label the edges of a graph of size m with
{ 0, 1, xi , ¬xi | 1 ≤ i ≤ n }, s.t. fn,k (~x) = 1 if and only if there is a path from
1 to k in the corresponding graph. We may formalize this with a definition.

Definition 2.1 We say that f : {0, 1}∗ → {0, 1}∗ reduces to USTCON (m),
m = m(n), if there is a uniform family of Space(log(n)) functions {σn,k } s.t.
for all n and k:

Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science 1995-1

 Nisan and Ta-Shma Symmetric Logspace §2.2

• σn,k is a projection (i.e., σn,k is a mapping from { {i, j} | 1 ≤ i < j ≤ m }

to { 0, 1, xi , ¬xi | 1 ≤ i ≤ n }). We abuse the notation by writing
σn,k (i, j) instead of σn,k ({i, j}).

• Given ~x define G~x,k to be the graph G~x,k = ({1, . . . , m}, E) where

E = { (i, j) | σn,k (i, j) = 1 or (σn,k (i, j) = xi and xi = 1)

or (σn,k (i, j) = ¬xi and xi = 0) }

• fn,k (~x) = 1 ⇐⇒ there is a path from 1 to m in G~x,k .

If σ is restricted to the set { 0, 1, xi | 1 ≤ i ≤ n }, we say that f monotonically
reduces to USTCON(m).

Lemma 2.1 If f has uniform monotone formulae of size s(n), then f is

monotonically reducible to USTCON (O(s(n))).

Proof of Lemma 2.1 Given a formula φ, recursively build (G, s, t) as fol-

lows:
• If φ = xi , then build a graph with two vertices s and t and one edge
between them labeled xi .

• If φ = φ1 ∧ φ2 , and (Gi , si , ti ), then the graphs for φi , i = 1, 2 identify

s2 with t1 , and define s = s1 , t = t2 .

• If φ = φ1 ∨ φ2 , and (Gi , si , ti ), then the graphs for φi , i = 1, 2 identify

s1 with t1 and s2 with t2 , and define s = s1 = t1 and t = s2 = t2 .

Proof of Lemma 2.1 2

2.2-3

Definition 2.2 Sort: {0, 1}n → {0, 1}n is the Boolean sorting function (i.e.,
it moves all the zeros to the beginning of the string).
Using the AKS sorting networks [AKS83], which belong to NC 1 , we derive
the following corollary.
Corollary 2.2 Sort is monotonically reducible to USTCON (poly).
4

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 Nisan and Ta-Shma Symmetric Logspace §2.3

Lemma 2.3 If f monotonically reduces to USTCON (m1 ), and g reduces

to USTCON(m2 ), then f ◦ g reduces to USTCON (m21 · m2 ), where ◦ is the
standard function composition operator.

Proof of Lemma 2.3 The function f monotonically reduces to a graph

with m1 vertices, where each edge is labeled with one of {0, 1, xi }. In the
composition function f ◦ g, each xi is replaced by xi = gi (~y ), which can be
reduced to a connectivity problem of size m2 . Replace each edge labeled xi
with its corresponding connectivity problem. There can be m21 edges, each
replaced by a graph with m2 vertices. The resulting new graph has m21 · m2
vertices.
Proof of Lemma 2.3 2

2.3 Finding a spanning forest

2.3-1 We show how to build a spanning forest using USTCON in this section. Reif
[Rei82], and independently, Cook, have previously noted this idea.
2.3-2 Given a graph G, index the edges from 1 to m. We can view the indices
as weights to the edges, and, as no two edges have the same weight, we know
that there is a unique minimal spanning forest F . In our case, where the
edges are indexed, this minimal forest is the lexicographically first spanning
forest.
2.3-3 It is well known that the greedy algorithm finds a minimal spanning forest.
Let us recall how the greedy algorithm works in our case. The algorithm
builds a spanning forest F which is empty at the beginning, F = ∅. Then
the algorithm checks the edges one by one according to their order. For each
edge e, if e does not close a cycle in F , then e is added to the forest. This
may be stated as F = F ∪ {e}.
2.3-4 At first glance, the algorithm looks sequential. However, claim 2.4.1 shows
that the greedy algorithm is actually highly parallel. To check whether an
edge participates in the forest, we need only one s–t connectivity problem
over an easily-obtainable graph.
Definition 2.3 For an undirected graph G denote by LFF (G) the lexico-
graphically first spanning forest of G. Let SF (G) ∈ {0, 1}( 2 ) be:
n

(
0 (i, j) ∈ LFF (G)
SF i,j (G) =
1 otherwise
5

Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science 1995-1

 Nisan and Ta-Shma Symmetric Logspace §2.4

Lemma 2.4 SF reduces to USTCON (poly).

Proof of Lemma 2.4 Let F be the lexicographically first spanning forest

of G. For e ∈ E, define Ge to be the subgraph of G containing only the
edges { e0 ∈ E | index (e0 ) < index (e) }.
Claim 2.4.1 e = (i, j) ∈ F ⇐⇒ e ∈ E and i is not connected to j in Ge .

Proof of Claim 2.4.1 Let e = (i, j) ∈ E. Denote by Fe the forest which

the greedy algorithm built at the time it was checking e. So e ∈ F if and
only if e does not close a cycle in Fe .

(=⇒) e ∈ F and therefore, e does not close a cycle in Fe , but then e does
not close a cycle in the transitive closure of Fe , and in particular e does not
close a cycle in Ge .

(⇐=) e does not close a cycle in Ge therefore, e does not close a cycle in
Fe and e ∈ F .
Proof of Claim 2.4.1 2

Therefore, SF i,j (G) = ¬xi,j or i is connected to j in G(i,j) . Because ¬xi,j can

be viewed as the connectivity problem over the graph with two vertices and
one edge labeled ¬xi,j , it follows from lemmas 2.1 and 2.3 that SF reduces
to USTCON . Notice, however, that the reduction is not monotone.
Proof of Lemma 2.4 2

2.4 Putting it together

2.4-1 First, we want to build a function that takes one representative from each
connected component. We define LI i (G) to be 0 if and only if the vertex i
has the largest index in its connected component.
Definition 2.4 LI (G) ∈ {0, 1}n
(
0 i has the largest index in its connected component
LI i (G) =
1 otherwise

Lemma 2.5 LI reduces to USTCON (poly).

6

Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science 1995-1

 Nisan and Ta-Shma Symmetric Logspace §2.4

W
Proof of Lemma 2.5 LI i (G) = nj=i+1 (i is connected to j in G). So LI is
a simple monotone formula over connectivity problems, and LI reduces to
USTCON by lemmas 2.1 and 2.3. This is, actually, a monotone reduction.

Proof of Lemma 2.5 2

2.4-2 Using the spanning forest and the LI function, we can exactly compute
the number of connected components of G (i.e., given G, we can compute
a function NCC i which is 1 iff there are exactly i connected components
in G).

Definition 2.5 NCC (G) ∈ {0, 1}n

(
1 there are exactly i connected components in G
NCC i (G) =
0 otherwise

Lemma 2.6 NCC reduces to USTCON (poly).

Proof of Lemma 2.6 Let F be a spanning forest of G. It is easy to see

that if G has k connected components, then |F | = n − k. Define:

f (G) = Sort ◦ LI (G)

g(G) = Sort ◦ SF (G)

Then:
fi (G) = 1 =⇒ k < i
gi (G) = 1 =⇒ n − k < i =⇒ k > n − i,
and thus:
NCC i (G) = fi+1 (G) ∧ gn−i+1 (G)
Therefore, applying lemmas 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5 proves the lemma.

Proof of Lemma 2.6 2

2.4-3 Finally, we can reduce the non-connectivity problem to the connectivity

problem, thus proving that SL = coSL.

Lemma 2.7 coUSTCON reduces to USTCON (poly).

Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science 1995-1

 Nisan and Ta-Shma Symmetric Logspace §3

Proof of Lemma 2.7 Given (G, s, t), define G+ to be the graph G∪{(s, t)}.
Denote by #CC (H) the number of connected components in the undirected
graph H.
s is not connected to t in G ⇐⇒ #CC (G+ ) = #CC (G) − 1
n
_
⇐⇒ NCC i (G) ∧ NCC i−1 (G+ )
i=2
Therefore, applying lemmas 2.1, 2.3, and 2.6 proves the lemma.
Proof of Lemma 2.7 2

3 Extensions
3-1 Denote by LhSLi the class of languages accepted by Logspace oracle Turing
machines with an oracle from SL. An oracle Turing machine has a work tape
and a write-only query tape (with unlimited length) which is initialized after
every query. We get:
Corollary 3.1 LhSLi = SL.
Corollary 3.1 Proof-1 Proof of Corollary 3.1 Let M be an oracle Turing Machine running in
LhSLi , and fix an input ~x to M . We build the “configuration” graph G(V, E)
of M using the following process:
• Let V contain all possible configurations.
• Then, (v, w) ∈ E with the label “q is (not) s–t connected,” if, starting
from configuration v, the next query is q. If the oracle answers that “q
is (not) connected,” then the machine moves to configuration w.
Corollary 3.1 Proof-2 Notice that we can ignore the direction of the edges, as backward edges
do not benefit us. The reason is that from any vertex v there is only one
forward edge leaving v that can be traversed (i.e., whose label matches the
oracle’s answer). Therefore, if we reach v using a “backward edge” w→v,
then the only forward edge leaving v that can be traversed is v→w.
Corollary 3.1 Proof-3 Now we can replace query edges labeled “q is connected” with the s–t
connectivity problem q, and edges labeled “q is not connected” with the s–t
connectivity problem obtained using our theorem that SL = coSL, resulting
in one, not too big, s–t connectivity problem. It is also clear that this can
be done in Logspace, completing the proof.
Proof of Corollary 3.1 2
8

Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science 1995-1

 Nisan and Ta-Shma Symmetric Logspace (Ref)

3-2 As the symmetric Logspace hierarchy defined in [Rei82] is known to be

within LhSLi , this hierarchy collapses to SL.
3-3 As can be easily seen, the above argument holds for any undirected graph
with undirected query edges, which is exactly the definition of SLhSLi given
by [BPS92]. Thus, SLhSLi = SL, and, by induction, the SL hierarchy defined
in [BPS92] collapses to SL.

4 Acknowledgments
4-1 We would like to thank Amos Beimel, Allan Borodin, Assaf Schuster, Robert
Szelepcsényi, and Avi Wigderson for helpful discussions.

Acknowledgement of support: This work was supported by BSF Grant

92-00043 and by a Wolfeson Award administered by the Israeli Academy of
Sciences. The work was revised while visiting BRICS, Basic Research in
Computer Science, Centre of the Danish National Research Foundation. A
preliminary version of this paper appeared in the proceedings of the 27th
Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, 1995 .

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