NP-easy

In complexity theory, the complexity class NP-easy is the

set of function problems that are solvable in polynomial
time by a deterministic Turing machine with an oracle for
some decision problem in NP.
In other words, a problem X is NP-easy if and only
if there exists some problem Y in NP such that X is
polynomial-time Turing reducible to Y.[1] This means
that given an oracle for Y, there exists an algorithm that
solves X in polynomial time (possibly by repeatedly using
that oracle).
NP-easy is another name for FPNP (see the function problem article) or for F2 P (see the polynomial hierarchy
article).
An example of an NP-easy problem is the problem of
sorting a list of strings. The decision problem is string
A greater than string B is in NP. There are algorithms
such as Quicksort that can sort the list using only a polynomial number of calls to the comparison routine, plus a
polynomial amount of additional work. Therefore, sorting is NP-easy.
There are also more dicult problems that are NP-easy.
See NP-equivalent for an example.
The denition of NP-easy uses a Turing reduction rather
than a many-one reduction because the answers to problem Y are only TRUE or FALSE, but the answers to problem X can be more general. Therefore, there is no general
way to translate an instance of X to an instance of Y with
the same answer.

Notes

[1] Garey & Johnson (1979), p. 117, 120.

References
Garey, Michael R.; Johnson, David S. (1979),
Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory
of NP-Completeness, W. H. Freeman, ISBN 0-71671045-5.

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