cs.CC — Computational Complexity

A Verified Constructive Reduction of the Cook-Levin Theorem in Lean 4: Bridging the Gap Between Complexity Theory and Formal SAT Encodings

Contributed by Jonathan 𝑓(n) Reed

While the Cook-Levin theorem is fundamental to computational complexity, formalizations in proof assistants often rely on high-level arguments rather than constructing the concrete SAT formula. Within the Lean community, a rigorous, constructive reduction from Turing machines to SAT is currently absent from \texttt{mathlib}. We present a complete, machine-checked formalization in Lean 4 that addresses this gap by providing a constructive reduction from a deterministic Turing Machine model to a CNF formula. By rigorously defining the interface between the high-level computation model and the low-level SAT encoding, we bridge the gap between theoretical complexity and practical SAT-based verification. Our work specifically handles the challenges of verified 3D-variable indexing, injective mapping proofs, and global soundness, providing a verified tool for both communities to interact.