Ryan Williams explains why PPSZ and resolution-based SAT methods obey ETH
rrwilliams · x · 2026-10-29
In a technical exchange about his work refuting SETH, Ryan Williams answers whether prior SOTA algorithms like PPSZ satisfy the lower-bound conditions against resolution-based methods: "yes." He explains that extensions of known algorithms were known to still "obey" ETH — resolution-based methods, which capture most behavior of modern SAT solvers, provably can't break through — but he felt those reasons weren't strong enough, so he chose to refute SETH first before thinking about ETH.
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