Some Extensions of the Inversion Complexity of Boolean Functions (1506.04485v3)

Abstract: The minimum number of NOT gates in a Boolean circuit computing a Boolean function is called the inversion complexity of the function. In 1957, A. A. Markov determined the inversion complexity of every Boolean function and proved that $\lceil\log_{2}(d(f)+1)\rceil$ NOT gates are necessary and sufficient to compute any Boolean function $f$ (where $d(f)$ is maximum number of value changes from 1 to 0 over all increasing chains of tuples of variables values). In this paper we consider Boolean circuits over an arbitrary basis that consists of all monotone functions (with zero weight) and finite nonempty set of non-monotone functions (with unit weight). It is shown that the minimal sufficient for a realization of the Boolean function $f$ number of non-monotone gates is equal to $\lceil\log_{2}(d(f)+1)\rceil - O(1)$. Similar extends of another classical result of A. A. Markov for the inversion complexity of system of Boolean functions has been obtained.