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Do all NP-hard problems have a reduction from one to another (Either A $\leq_m$ B or B $\leq_m$ A)

Submitted by: @import:stackexchange-cs··
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Problem

Given two problems, $A$ and $B$, that are NP-hard. Is either one of the following is true?

  • $A \leq_m$ B



  • $B \leq_m$ A



In other words, is there always a relationship between any two arbitrary NP-hard problems?

Also, I am speaking of polynomial time reductions, but I don't think specifying that will change the answer to this question.

Solution

No, the polytime m-degrees are not linearly ordered even above SAT.

We can get even stronger incomparability: there are sets which aren't even arbitrary-time Turing-comparable. This was proved by Kleene and Post (Friedberg and Muchnik proved an elaboration where the sets involved are also required to be c.e.).

Context

StackExchange Computer Science Q#159745, answer score: 2

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