A recursion-theoretic characterization of monotone NP

Abstract In this paper we give a recursion-theoretic characterization and a new machine model for the complexity class , the class of functions which are monotone. This is the first recursion-theoretic approach to a monotone/positive class of non-deterministic nature. The recursion scheme developed here has the potential to be applied to other monotone/positive classes based on non-deterministic models of computation. Moreover, the recursion-theoretic approach introduced in this work leads to a new machine model for $$\texttt {mNP}$$ mNP of remarkable simplicity.