Arora and colleagues: proof verification and hardness of approximation

What changed

Proved PCP-type verification for NP and conditional hardness-of-approximation consequences.

Scientific scope

The record is the exact five-author 1998 journal article and its stated parameter regime. It does not constitute an unconditional proof that P differs from NP, absorb predecessor PCP work or cover every later optimized PCP theorem and inapproximability bound.

Evidence

The linked sources identify this contribution and its scope. WRS has not independently reconstructed the scientific claims. The record is the exact five-author 1998 journal article and its stated parameter regime. It does not constitute an unconditional proof that P differs from NP, absorb predecessor PCP work or cover every later optimized PCP theorem and inapproximability bound.

Contributors

• Sanjeev Arora · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• Carsten Lund · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• Rajeev Motwani · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• Madhu Sudan · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• Mario Szegedy · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.

• ACM record for proof verification and approximation hardness
• MIT author-hosted PCP journal paper

Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-16.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.

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