Take
L∈NL and
M an NTM computing
L in logarithmic
space.
As per Claim 4.4, for any
x the configuration graph
GM,x has
2clog∣x∣ nodes (for some
c not a
function of
x), which is to say
k∣x∣ nodes (for some
k not a
function of
x). This entails that constructing
GM,x from
M,x can be performed in sub-polynomial time.
Let
G~M,x be the same as
GM,x except that nodes not reachable from the start state are omitted, unless they are the stop state node. Note that
G~M,x can be computed just as efficiently as
GM,x. Noting that
a∈L⟺M(a)=1⟺GM,a has a path from the start state to the stop state ⟺G~M,a is strongly-connected
we have that the computation
(M,a)↦G~M,a is the desired polynomial-time
reduction.