On the Consistency of Circuit Lower Bounds for Non-deterministic Time

Abstract

We prove the first unconditional consistency result for superpolynomial circuit lower bounds with a relatively strong theory of bounded arithmetic. Namely, we show that the theory V 0 2 is consistent with the conjecture that NEXP ̸ ⊆ P/poly, i.e., some problem that is solvable in non-deterministic exponential time does not have polynomial size circuits. We suggest this is the best currently available evidence for the truth of the conjecture. Additionally, we establish a magnification result on the hardness of proving circuit lower bounds.