We prove that for k << (4)root n regular resolution requires length n(Omega(k)) to establish that an Erdos Renyi graph with appropriately chosen edge density does not contain a k-clique. This lower bound is optimal up to the multiplicative constant in the exponent, and also implies unconditional n(Omega(k)) lower bounds on running time for several state-of-the-art algorithms for finding maximum cliques in graphs.

We obtain the first true size-space trade-offs for the cutting planes proof system, where the upper bounds hold for size and total space for derivations with constant-size coefficients, and the lower bounds apply to length and formula space (i.e., number of inequalities in memory) even for derivations with exponentially large coefficients. These are also the first trade-offs to hold uniformly for resolution, polynomial calculus and cutting planes, thus capturing the main methods of reasoning used in current state-of-the-art SAT solvers. We prove our results by a reduction to communication lower bounds in a round-efficient version of the real communication model of [Krajicek ' 98], drawing on and extending techniques in [Raz and McKenzie ' 99] and [Goos et al. '15]. The communication lower bounds are in turn established by a reduction to trade-offs between cost and number of rounds in the game of [Dymond and Tompa '85] played on directed acyclic graphs. As a by-product of the techniques developed to show these proof complexity trade-off results, we also obtain an exponential separation between monotone-AC(i-1) and monotone-AC(i), improving exponentially over the superpolynomial separation in [Raz and McKenzie ' 99]. That is, we give an explicit Boolean function that can be computed by monotone Boolean circuits of depth log(i) n and polynomial size, but for which circuits of depth O (log(i-1) n) require exponential size.

We significantly strengthen and generalize the theorem lifting Nullstellensatz degree to monotone span program size by Pitassi and Robere (2018) so that it works for any gadget with high enough rank, in particular, for useful gadgets such as equality and greater-than. We apply our generalized theorem to solve two open problems:

• We present the first result that demonstrates a separation in proof power for cutting planes with unbounded versus polynomially bounded coefficients. Specifically, we exhibit CNF formulas that can be refuted in quadratic length and constant line space in cutting planes with unbounded coefficients, but for which there are no refutations in subexponential length and subpolynomialline space if coefficients are restricted to be of polynomial magnitude.

• We give the first explicit separation between monotone Boolean formulas and monotone real formulas. Specifically, we give an explicit family of functions that can be computed with monotone real formulas of nearly linear size but require monotone Boolean formulas of exponential size. Previously only a non-explicit separation was known.

An important technical ingredient, which may be of independent interest, is that we show that the Nullstellensatz degree of refuting the pebbling formula over a DAG G over any field coincides exactly with the reversible pebbling price of G. In particular, this implies that the standard decision tree complexity and the parity decision tree complexity of the corresponding falsified clause search problem are equal.

We establish an exactly tight relation between reversible pebblings of graphs and Nullstellensatz refutations of pebbling formulas, showing that a graph G can be reversibly pebbled in time t and space s if an only if there is a Nullstellensatz refutation of the pebbling formula over G in size t + 1 and degree s (independently of the field in which the Nullstellensatz refutation is made). We use this correspondence to prove a number of strong size-degree trade-offs for Nullstellensatz, which to the best of our knowledge are the first such results for this proof system.

We study space complexity and time-space trade-offs with a focus not on peak memory usage but on overall memory consumption throughout the computation. Such a cumulative space measure was introduced for the computational model of parallel black pebbling by [Alwen and Serbinenko 2015] as a tool for obtaining results in cryptography. We consider instead the nondeterministic black-white pebble game and prove optimal cumulative space lower bounds and trade-offs, where in order to minimize pebbling time the space has to remain large during a significant fraction of the pebbling. We also initiate the study of cumulative space in proof complexity, an area where other space complexity measures have been extensively studied during the last 10-15 years. Using and extending the connection between proof complexity and pebble games in [Ben-Sasson and Nordström 2008, 2011], we obtain several strong cumulative space results for (even parallel versions of) the resolution proof system, and outline some possible future directions of study of this, in our opinion, natural and interesting space measure.