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On this Wikipedia article, they claim that given $A, B, C \geq 0, \; \in \mathbb{Z}$, deciding whether there exist $x, \,y \geq 0, \, \in \mathbb{Z}$ such that $Ax^2+By-C=0$ is NP-complete?

Given by how easy I can solve some (with nothing but Wolfram), it doesn't seem right. I'm sure it's either written incorrectly or I'm just misunderstanding something.

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    $\begingroup$ Did you try to input $A,B,C$ of order, for example, $10^{100}$? Surely, you can solve this problem in time polynomial of $A,B,C$. But the algorithm is polynomial if it is polynomial of the length of the input, i.e. the number of digits in $A,B,C$. $\endgroup$
    – user114966
    Aug 17, 2020 at 3:38
  • $\begingroup$ @Dmitry But I don't understand: can't you generate polynomials $x=P_1(n), \, y=P_2(n), \, n \in \mathbb{Z}$, find the solution set for $x \geq 0, \, y \geq 0$, and see if there's integers in that? $\endgroup$
    – DUO Labs
    Aug 17, 2020 at 3:42
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    $\begingroup$ You have $y = \frac 1B (C - A x^2)$. For $y$ to be an integer, you must have $A x^2 \equiv C \pmod B$. Let $A = 1$, so you have to find a square root of $C \pmod B$, without knowing the factorization of $B$. I think this is the part which is NP-hard. $\endgroup$
    – user114966
    Aug 17, 2020 at 4:02
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    $\begingroup$ Even if factoring $B$ were easy, what can produce many choices that need to be analysed are the $\pm$ signs of the square roots of $C$ modulo the factors of $B$. A reduction of SUBSET SUM to this problem encodes the input set and the target in $A,B,C$ and the selection of the subset in the selection of these signs. $\endgroup$
    – plop
    Aug 17, 2020 at 12:56
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    $\begingroup$ @Dmitry Your value for $B$ had only two factors $75363141341345632452454252455353=11×6851194667395057495677659314123$. See also the comment above. $\endgroup$
    – plop
    Aug 17, 2020 at 13:14

1 Answer 1

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As you noted, solving that Diophantine equation is not complicated, mathematically.

All is needed is to find the necessary remainders $r$ of $x$ modulo $B$ such that $Ax^2-C$ is a multiple of $B$, then all integer solutions are of the form $x=Bn+r$ and $y=(C-Ax^2)/B=(C-A(Bn+r)^2)/B$.

One way to find the remainders $r$ is to

  1. factor $B=\prod_i q_i^{a_i}$, where $q_i$ are different primes,
  2. solve the congruences $Ax^2-C\equiv 0\pmod{q_i}$, which in the worst case have two solutions $\pm t_i$,
  3. lift these solutions to solutions $\pm\theta_i$ of $Ax^2-C\equiv 0\pmod{q_i^{a_i}}$ and
  4. glue these solutions, using the Chinese Remainder Theorem to get a solution of $Ax^2-C\equiv0\pmod{B}$. Note all the $\pm$ choices.

Factoring $B$ is possibly hard, but maybe it isn't. My outdated knowledge is that nobody knows. Also maybe it is also possible to find the remainders $r$ without factoring $B$. What the proof that I saw exploits to conclude that the problem is NP-complete is the decision that still remains to be made.

The original decision problem becomes checking if one of the choices of $\pm$ is such that the interval $x\geq0$, in other words $n\geq -r/B$, intersects (and intersection contains an integer) the interval where $n$ is such that $y\geq0$. Compared to the bit size of $(A,B,C)$ there can be many remainders $r$ to test. I will not quantify this claim. Let the proof of its NP-completeness give evidence of it.

In Moore and Mertens' The Nature of Computation, section 5.4.4 there is a reduction (with parts left as exercises) of the SUBSET SUM decision problem to this decision problem (let's call it QDE).


Let me sketch their argument just to get a taste of how the input to SUBSET SUM is encoded in the input to QDE and how the choices of $\pm$ correspond to the subsets that one can consider in SUBSET SUM. Maybe I or someone else can expand the details later.

SUBSET SUM gets a set (or maybe a multi-set) $X=\{x_1,x_2,\ldots x_n\}\subset\mathbb{N}$ and $t\in \mathbb{N}$ and asks if there is a subset $Y\subset X$ such that the sum of its elements is $t$. If one defines $S=2t-\sum_{k=1}^{n}x_k$ then SUBSET SUM is equivalent to the existence of $\sigma_i\in\{-1,1\}$ such that $$S=\sum_{k=1}^{n}\sigma_kx_k$$

Here we have already choices of subsets encoded as choices of $\pm$.

Taking $m$ such that $2^m>\sum_{k=1}^{n}x_k$ this equation is equivalent to $$S\equiv \sum_{k=1}^{n}\sigma_kx_k\pmod{2^m}$$ If we choose $q_1,q_2,...,q_n$ relatively prime odd numbers (the first odd primes suffice), the Chinese Remainder theorem ensures that there are $\theta_1,\theta_2,\ldots,\theta_n$ such that

$$ \begin{align} \theta_k&\equiv x_k\pmod{2^m}\\\ \theta_i&\equiv0\pmod{\prod_{k=1,k\neq i}^{n}q_k^m}\\\ \theta_k&\not\equiv0\pmod{q_k} \end{align} $$

The $\theta_i$ will be, for the QDE problem to be created, the solutions $\theta_i$ that we mentioned at the beginning.

The first group of these congruences imply that SUBSET SUM is equivalent to $$S\equiv \sum_{k=1}^{n}\sigma_k\theta_k\pmod{2^m}\qquad\qquad(*)$$

Now they build the quadratic equation, which solubility is equivalent to the solubility of this congruence.

They define $H=\sum_{k=1}^n\theta_k$ and $K=\prod_{k=1}^{n}q_k^m$. Observe that any $x$ of the form $$x=\sum_{k=1}^{n}\sigma_k\theta_k$$ satisfies $$H^2-x^2\equiv0\pmod{K}$$

Then, through a pair of exercises, they argue why there are choices for picking $q_i$ and a $\lambda_1$ large enough such that $2H<K$, and $|t|<H$, and ensuring that $(*)$ has a solution if and only if the Quadratic Diophantine Equation

$$\underbrace{(\lambda_12^{m+1}+K)}_{A}x^2+\underbrace{2^{m+1}K}_{B}y-\underbrace{(\lambda_12^{m+1}H^2-KS^2)}_C=0$$

has a solution $x,y\geq0$.

Notice how this equation re-writes as

$$\lambda_12^{m+1}(H^2-x^2)-K(S^2-x^2)=2^{m+1}Ky,$$

The choices made in the technical details are such that when there is a solution $x,y\geq0$ for this equation it is always the case that $H^2-x^2$ is already known to be a multiple of $K$ and $S^2-x^2=(S+x)(S-x)$ a multiple of $2^{m+1}$.

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    $\begingroup$ Wow, such a well-written answer. Here is a much deserved +1 and accept! $\endgroup$
    – DUO Labs
    Aug 17, 2020 at 19:01

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