# When does “X is NP-complete” imply “#X is #P-complete”?

Let $X$ denote a (decision) problem in NP and let #$X$ denote its counting version.

Under what conditions is it known that "X is NP-complete" $\implies$ "#X is #P-complete"?

Of course the existence of a parsimonious reduction is one such condition, but this is obvious and the only such condition of which I am aware. The ultimate goal would be to show that no condition is needed.

Formally speaking, one should start with the counting problem #$X$ defined by a function $f : \{0,1\}^* \to \mathbb{N}$ and then define the decision problem $X$ on an input string $s$ as $f(s) \ne 0$?

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Are you looking for something more than "X is NP-complete under parsimonious reductions"? –  Joshua Grochow Jan 17 '13 at 3:38
@usul: No. If we drop the assumption that X is NP-complete, then bipartite matching is in P (so definitely not parsimoniously NP-complete assuming $P \neq NP$) but its counting version is #P-complete. However, if we really want X NP-complete, then off the top of my head I don't know of a problem X such that: 1) X is NP-complete, 2) X is not NP-complete under parsimonious reductions, and 3) #X is #P-complete. But I haven't really thought about it. –  Joshua Grochow Jan 17 '13 at 4:46
But is there a problem that negates this ? i.e X is NP-complete and #X is not #P-complete ? –  Suresh Venkat Jan 17 '13 at 6:40
@YoshioOkamoto: that proves that #X ∈ #P implies that X ∈ NP. It's in the wrong direction and misses the problem of completeness. What we're looking at essentially is what additional requirements are needed in order for the existence of a many-to-one reduction for decision problems in NP (for arbitrary decision problems, or from an NP-complete problem) entails the existence of a efficient counting reduction for problems in #P (for arbitrary counting problems, or from a #P-complete problem). –  Niel de Beaudrap Jan 17 '13 at 12:57
@ColinMcQuillan It could be stated in reverse. Start with a counting problem and define a decision problem from it asking if the output is nonzero. –  Tyson Williams Jan 17 '13 at 13:36