OpenAI reports a P-time query outside choiceless counting

An explicit isomorphism-invariant query on all finite structures in one fixed vocabulary of eight relations is decidable in deterministic polynomial time but is not definable in choiceless polynomial time with counting.

Sources for this record

What was already known

Blass, Gurevich and Shelah conjectured that choiceless polynomial time with counting does not capture all polynomial-time queries on unordered finite structures. Earlier separations did not establish this for the full counting formalism.

AI involvement AI-led

OpenAI credits itself as manuscript author and states that its internal frontier model produced the results in this release. Individual human input is not detailed enough to establish task-only autonomy.

OpenAI is named as author on the manuscript, and its release attributes the results to an internal frontier model. The individual human input is not detailed enough to establish autonomy.

Importance Major

Resolves the noncapture conjecture for the full choiceless counting formalism.

Limitations

The query is total on finite inputs and uses a fixed vocabulary. The separate witnessed-symmetric-choice extension is a different result in this family.

Technical verification Formal (Lean 4)

OpenAI reports a Lean proof matching the selected claim.

Formal checking

The pinned Lean note covers an explicit polynomial-time isomorphism-invariant query on all finite structures that is outside the stated full hereditarily finite-set counting language.

Checker
OpenAI-reported Lean 4 / Comparator
Scope
An explicit isomorphism-invariant query on all finite structures in one fixed vocabulary of eight relations is decidable in deterministic polynomial time but is not definable in choiceless polynomial time with counting.
Basis
Reported by the linked checker
Evidence source

Checking a formal statement does not establish that it matches the original problem.

Human understanding Few

Few is the default when evidence for a higher level is insufficient. No named person is documented as explaining the central argument for this assessed contribution.

Correction and publication history

2026-10-18 · publication

Primary manuscript, attribution, prior-work, and scoped checking review for non-notifying local inclusion.

Read this published revision