The Separation of $\mathit{NP}$ and $\mathit{PSPACE}$

Abstract

There is an important and interesting open question in computational complexity on the relation between the complexity classes $\mathcal{NP}$ and $\mathcal{PSPACE}$. It is a widespread belief that $\mathcal{NP}\ne\mathcal{PSPACE}$. In this paper, we confirm this conjecture affirmatively by showing that there is a language $L_d$ accepted by no polynomial-time nondeterministic Turing machines but accepted by a nondeterministic Turing machine running within space $O(n^k)$ for all $k\in\mathbb{N}_1$. We achieve this by virtue of the prerequisite of $$ {\rm NTIME}[S(n)]\subseteq{\rm DSPACE}[S(n)], $$ and then by diagonalization against all polynomial-time nondeterministic Turing machines via a universal nondeterministic Turing machine $M_0$. We further show that $L_d\in \mathcal{PSPACE}$, which leads to the conclusion $$ \mathcal{NP}\subsetneqq\mathcal{PSPACE}. $$ Our approach is based on standard diagonalization and novel new techniques developed in the author's recent works \cite{Lin21a,Lin21b} with some new refinement.