Exact Cover
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Exact Cover
In the mathematical field of combinatorics, given a collection of subsets of a Set (mathematics), set , an exact cover is a subcollection of such that each element in is contained in ''exactly one'' subset in . In other words, is a partition of a set, partition of consisting of subsets contained in . One says that each element in is covered by exactly one subset in . An exact cover is a kind of cover (topology), cover. In computer science, the exact cover problem is a decision problem to determine if an exact cover exists. The exact cover problem is NP-complete This book is a classic, developing the theory, then cataloguing ''many'' NP-Complete problems. and is one of Karp's 21 NP-complete problems. It is NP-complete even when each subset in contains exactly three elements; this restricted problem is known as exact cover by 3-sets, often abbreviated X3C. The exact cover problem is a kind of constraint satisfaction problem. An exact cover problem can be represented by an ...
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Mathematical
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ...
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Dancing Links
In computer science, dancing links (DLX) is a technique for adding and deleting a node from a circular doubly linked list. It is particularly useful for efficiently implementing backtracking algorithms, such as Knuth's Algorithm X for the exact cover problem. Algorithm X is a recursive, nondeterministic, depth-first, backtracking algorithm that finds all solutions to the exact cover problem. Some of the better-known exact cover problems include tiling, the ''n'' queens problem, and Sudoku. The name ''dancing links'', which was suggested by Donald Knuth, stems from the way the algorithm works, as iterations of the algorithm cause the links to "dance" with partner links so as to resemble an "exquisitely choreographed dance." Knuth credits Hiroshi Hitotsumatsu and Kōhei Noshita with having invented the idea in 1979, but it is his paper which has popularized it. Implementation As the remainder of this article discusses the details of an implementation technique for Algorithm X ...
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Heterogeneous Relation
In mathematics, a binary relation associates elements of one set, called the ''domain'', with elements of another set, called the ''codomain''. A binary relation over sets and is a new set of ordered pairs consisting of elements in and in . It is a generalization of the more widely understood idea of a unary function. It encodes the common concept of relation: an element is ''related'' to an element , if and only if the pair belongs to the set of ordered pairs that defines the ''binary relation''. A binary relation is the most studied special case of an -ary relation over sets , which is a subset of the Cartesian product X_1 \times \cdots \times X_n. An example of a binary relation is the "divides" relation over the set of prime numbers \mathbb and the set of integers \mathbb, in which each prime is related to each integer that is a multiple of , but not to an integer that is not a multiple of . In this relation, for instance, the prime number 2 is related to numbe ...
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Hypergraph
In mathematics, a hypergraph is a generalization of a graph in which an edge can join any number of vertices. In contrast, in an ordinary graph, an edge connects exactly two vertices. Formally, an undirected hypergraph H is a pair H = (X,E) where X is a set of elements called ''nodes'' or ''vertices'', and E is a set of non-empty subsets of X called '' hyperedges'' or ''edges''. Therefore, E is a subset of \mathcal(X) \setminus\, where \mathcal(X) is the power set of X. The size of the vertex set is called the ''order of the hypergraph'', and the size of edges set is the ''size of the hypergraph''. A directed hypergraph differs in that its hyperedges are not sets, but ordered pairs of subsets of X, with each pair's first and second entries constituting the tail and head of the hyperedge respectively. While graph edges connect only 2 nodes, hyperedges connect an arbitrary number of nodes. However, it is often desirable to study hypergraphs where all hyperedges have the same ca ...
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Converse Relation
In mathematics, the converse relation, or transpose, of a binary relation is the relation that occurs when the order of the elements is switched in the relation. For example, the converse of the relation 'child of' is the relation 'parent of'. In formal terms, if X and Y are sets and L \subseteq X \times Y is a relation from X to Y, then L^ is the relation defined so that yL^x if and only if xLy. In set-builder notation, :L^ = \. The notation is analogous with that for an inverse function. Although many functions do not have an inverse, every relation does have a unique converse. The unary operation that maps a relation to the converse relation is an involution, so it induces the structure of a semigroup with involution on the binary relations on a set, or, more generally, induces a dagger category on the category of relations as detailed below. As a unary operation, taking the converse (sometimes called conversion or transposition) commutes with the order-rel ...
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Binary Relation
In mathematics, a binary relation associates elements of one set, called the ''domain'', with elements of another set, called the ''codomain''. A binary relation over sets and is a new set of ordered pairs consisting of elements in and in . It is a generalization of the more widely understood idea of a unary function. It encodes the common concept of relation: an element is ''related'' to an element , if and only if the pair belongs to the set of ordered pairs that defines the ''binary relation''. A binary relation is the most studied special case of an -ary relation over sets , which is a subset of the Cartesian product X_1 \times \cdots \times X_n. An example of a binary relation is the "divides" relation over the set of prime numbers \mathbb and the set of integers \mathbb, in which each prime is related to each integer that is a multiple of , but not to an integer that is not a multiple of . In this relation, for instance, the prime number 2 is related to numbe ...
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Union (set Theory)
In set theory, the union (denoted by ∪) of a collection of sets is the set of all elements in the collection. It is one of the fundamental operations through which sets can be combined and related to each other. A refers to a union of zero (0) sets and it is by definition equal to the empty set. For explanation of the symbols used in this article, refer to the table of mathematical symbols. Union of two sets The union of two sets ''A'' and ''B'' is the set of elements which are in ''A'', in ''B'', or in both ''A'' and ''B''. In set-builder notation, :A \cup B = \. For example, if ''A'' = and ''B'' = then ''A'' ∪ ''B'' = . A more elaborate example (involving two infinite sets) is: : ''A'' = : ''B'' = : A \cup B = \ As another example, the number 9 is ''not'' contained in the union of the set of prime numbers and the set of even numbers , because 9 is neither prime nor even. Sets cannot have duplicate elements, so the union of the sets and is . Multiple ...
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Pairwise Disjoint
In mathematics, two sets are said to be disjoint sets if they have no element in common. Equivalently, two disjoint sets are sets whose intersection is the empty set.. For example, and are ''disjoint sets,'' while and are not disjoint. A collection of two or more sets is called disjoint if any two distinct sets of the collection are disjoint. Generalizations This definition of disjoint sets can be extended to a family of sets \left(A_i\right)_: the family is pairwise disjoint, or mutually disjoint if A_i \cap A_j = \varnothing whenever i \neq j. Alternatively, some authors use the term disjoint to refer to this notion as well. For families the notion of pairwise disjoint or mutually disjoint is sometimes defined in a subtly different manner, in that repeated identical members are allowed: the family is pairwise disjoint if A_i \cap A_j = \varnothing whenever A_i \neq A_j (every two ''distinct'' sets in the family are disjoint).. For example, the collection of sets is di ...
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Empty Set
In mathematics, the empty set is the unique set having no elements; its size or cardinality (count of elements in a set) is zero. Some axiomatic set theories ensure that the empty set exists by including an axiom of empty set, while in other theories, its existence can be deduced. Many possible properties of sets are vacuously true for the empty set. Any set other than the empty set is called non-empty. In some textbooks and popularizations, the empty set is referred to as the "null set". However, null set is a distinct notion within the context of measure theory, in which it describes a set of measure zero (which is not necessarily empty). The empty set may also be called the void set. Notation Common notations for the empty set include "", "\emptyset", and "∅". The latter two symbols were introduced by the Bourbaki group (specifically André Weil) in 1939, inspired by the letter Ø in the Danish and Norwegian alphabets. In the past, "0" was occasionally used as ...
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Intersection (set Theory)
In set theory, the intersection of two sets A and B, denoted by A \cap B, is the set containing all elements of A that also belong to B or equivalently, all elements of B that also belong to A. Notation and terminology Intersection is written using the symbol "\cap" between the terms; that is, in infix notation. For example: \\cap\=\ \\cap\=\varnothing \Z\cap\N=\N \\cap\N=\ The intersection of more than two sets (generalized intersection) can be written as: \bigcap_^n A_i which is similar to capital-sigma notation. For an explanation of the symbols used in this article, refer to the table of mathematical symbols. Definition The intersection of two sets A and B, denoted by A \cap B, is the set of all objects that are members of both the sets A and B. In symbols: A \cap B = \. That is, x is an element of the intersection A \cap B if and only if x is both an element of A and an element of B. For example: * The intersection of the sets and is . * The number 9 is in ...
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