Proof that complement of HAMPATH is not in NP The Sipser book says, Complement of HAMPATH is not in NP.

I tried to find the solution for this, actually, a rigid proof like HAMPATH, which can state Complement of HAMPATH is in/not in NP, but I could not come up with any.

This is what I think, We are given a path from s to t(which can be a certificate for the problem, or not?), and check if it is not a HAMPATH. But this is easy, we can check this in P time right--Just list down the path, see that if any vertex is repeating in it, or if it is missing any vertex of the graph.

How come we are saying this problem is not in NP

I am very new to P and NP, Please correct my mistakes, and apologies if my question sounds like a silly one.
The complement of HAMPATH is the following problem:


  Given an undirected graph, determine whether it doesn't contain a Hamiltonian path.


A YES instance for the complement of HAMPATH is a graph which doesn't contain a Hamiltonian path. It is not clear what a witness for this property would be. Contrast that with HAMPATH itself, in which the witness for having a Hamiltonian path is simply a Hamiltonian path.



It is not known whether the complement of HAMPATH is in NP, or equivalently, whether HAMPATH is in coNP.

However, it is considered unlikely that HAMPATH is in coNP, since this would imply that NP=coNP, which is considered unlikely by most researchers in the area.