What is 'circuit problem' mentioned in Kempe-Kitaev-Regev's local hamiltonian problem paper
QMA is defined as the set of problems for which there is a polynomial quantum "verifier" circuit. So I guess the "circuit problem" refers to deciding whether such a verifier circuit has an accepting input. QMA-completeness of the $k$-local Hamiltonian problem is typically proven by encoding this circuit in a Hamiltonian (i.e., "by reduction from the circuit problem"). In this paper instead they prove QMA-completeness of 2-local Hamiltonians by reduction from 3-local Hamiltonians (hence, "not from the circuit problem").