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Natural Proofs
In computational complexity theory, a natural proof is a certain kind of proof establishing that one complexity class differs from another one. While these proofs are in some sense "natural", it can be shown (assuming a widely believed conjecture on the existence of pseudorandom functions) that no such proof can possibly be used to solve the P vs. NP problem. Overview The notion of natural proofs was introduced by Alexander Razborov and Steven Rudich in their article "Natural Proofs", first presented in 1994, and later published in 1997, for which they received the 2007 Gödel Prize. Specifically, natural proofs prove lower bounds on the circuit complexity of boolean functions. A natural proof shows, either directly or indirectly, that a boolean function has a certain natural combinatorial property. Under the assumption that pseudorandom functions exist with "exponential hardness" as specified in their main theorem, Razborov and Rudich show that these proofs cannot separate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computational Complexity Theory
In theoretical computer science and mathematics, computational complexity theory focuses on classifying computational problems according to their resource usage, and relating these classes to each other. A computational problem is a task solved by a computer. A computation problem is solvable by mechanical application of mathematical steps, such as an algorithm. A problem is regarded as inherently difficult if its solution requires significant resources, whatever the algorithm used. The theory formalizes this intuition, by introducing mathematical models of computation to study these problems and quantifying their computational complexity, i.e., the amount of resources needed to solve them, such as time and storage. Other measures of complexity are also used, such as the amount of communication (used in communication complexity), the number of gates in a circuit (used in circuit complexity) and the number of processors (used in parallel computing). One of the roles of computationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
P = NP Problem
The P versus NP problem is a major unsolved problem in theoretical computer science. In informal terms, it asks whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified can also be quickly solved. The informal term ''quickly'', used above, means the existence of an algorithm solving the task that runs in polynomial time, such that the time to complete the task varies as a polynomial function on the size of the input to the algorithm (as opposed to, say, exponential time). The general class of questions for which some algorithm can provide an answer in polynomial time is " P" or "class P". For some questions, there is no known way to find an answer quickly, but if one is provided with information showing what the answer is, it is possible to verify the answer quickly. The class of questions for which an answer can be ''verified'' in polynomial time is NP, which stands for "nondeterministic polynomial time".A nondeterministic Turing machine can move to a state that is not d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elliptic Curve Cryptography
Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) is an approach to public-key cryptography based on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields. ECC allows smaller keys compared to non-EC cryptography (based on plain Galois fields) to provide equivalent security.Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite and Quantum Computing FAQ U.S. National Security Agency, January 2016. Elliptic curves are applicable for , s, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discrete Logarithm
In mathematics, for given real numbers ''a'' and ''b'', the logarithm log''b'' ''a'' is a number ''x'' such that . Analogously, in any group ''G'', powers ''b''''k'' can be defined for all integers ''k'', and the discrete logarithm log''b'' ''a'' is an integer ''k'' such that . In number theory, the more commonly used term is index: we can write ''x'' = ind''r'' ''a'' (mod ''m'') (read "the index of ''a'' to the base ''r'' modulo ''m''") for ''r''''x'' ≡ ''a'' (mod ''m'') if ''r'' is a primitive root of ''m'' and gcd(''a'',''m'') = 1. Discrete logarithms are quickly computable in a few special cases. However, no efficient method is known for computing them in general. Several important algorithms in public-key cryptography, such as ElGamal base their security on the assumption that the discrete logarithm problem over carefully chosen groups has no efficient solution. Definition Let ''G'' be any group. Denote its group operation by mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avi Wigderson
Avi Wigderson ( he, אבי ויגדרזון; born 9 September 1956) is an Israeli mathematician and computer scientist. He is the Herbert H. Maass Professor in the school of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America. His research interests include complexity theory, parallel algorithms, graph theory, cryptography, distributed computing, and neural networks. Wigderson received the Abel Prize in 2021 for his work in theoretical computer science. Biography Avi Wigderson was born in Haifa, Israel, to Holocaust survivors. Wigderson is a graduate of the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, and did his undergraduate studies at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, graduating in 1980, and went on to graduate study at Princeton University. He received his PhD in computer science in 1983 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "Studies in computational complexity", under the supervision of Richard Lipton. After short-term positions at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
P/poly
In computational complexity theory, P/poly is a complexity class representing problems that can be solved by small circuits. More precisely, it is the set of formal languages that have polynomial-size circuit families. It can also be defined equivalently in terms of Turing machines with advice, extra information supplied to the Turing machine along with its input, that may depend on the input length but not on the input itself. In this formulation, P/poly is the class of decision problems that can be solved by a polynomial-time Turing machine with advice strings of length polynomial in the input size. These two different definitions make P/poly central to circuit complexity and non-uniform complexity. For example, the popular Miller–Rabin primality test can be formulated as a P/poly algorithm: the "advice" is a list of candidate values to test. It is possible to precompute a list of O(n) values such that every composite n-bit number will be certain to have a witness a in the list ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truth Table
A truth table is a mathematical table used in logic—specifically in connection with Boolean algebra, boolean functions, and propositional calculus—which sets out the functional values of logical expressions on each of their functional arguments, that is, for each combination of values taken by their logical variables. In particular, truth tables can be used to show whether a propositional expression is true for all legitimate input values, that is, logically valid. A truth table has one column for each input variable (for example, P and Q), and one final column showing all of the possible results of the logical operation that the table represents (for example, P XOR Q). Each row of the truth table contains one possible configuration of the input variables (for instance, P=true Q=false), and the result of the operation for those values. See the examples below for further clarification. Ludwig Wittgenstein is generally credited with inventing and popularizing the truth table ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boolean Satisfiability Problem
In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfies a given Boolean formula. In other words, it asks whether the variables of a given Boolean formula can be consistently replaced by the values TRUE or FALSE in such a way that the formula evaluates to TRUE. If this is the case, the formula is called ''satisfiable''. On the other hand, if no such assignment exists, the function expressed by the formula is FALSE for all possible variable assignments and the formula is ''unsatisfiable''. For example, the formula "''a'' AND NOT ''b''" is satisfiable because one can find the values ''a'' = TRUE and ''b'' = FALSE, which make (''a'' AND NOT ''b'') = TRUE. In contrast, "''a'' AND NOT ''a''" is unsatisfiable. SAT is the first problem that was proved to be NP-complete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boolean Function
In mathematics, a Boolean function is a function whose arguments and result assume values from a two-element set (usually , or ). Alternative names are switching function, used especially in older computer science literature, and truth function (or logical function), used in logic. Boolean functions are the subject of Boolean algebra and switching theory. A Boolean function takes the form f:\^k \to \, where \ is known as the Boolean domain and k is a non-negative integer called the arity of the function. In the case where k=0, the function is a constant element of \. A Boolean function with multiple outputs, f:\^k \to \^m with m>1 is a ''vectorial'' or ''vector-valued'' Boolean function (an S-box in symmetric cryptography). There are 2^ different Boolean functions with k arguments; equal to the number of different truth tables with 2^k entries. Every k-ary Boolean function can be expressed as a propositional formula in k variables x_1,...,x_k, and two propositional formulas are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Complexity Class
In computational complexity theory, a complexity class is a set of computational problems of related resource-based complexity. The two most commonly analyzed resources are time and memory. In general, a complexity class is defined in terms of a type of computational problem, a model of computation, and a bounded resource like time or memory. In particular, most complexity classes consist of decision problems that are solvable with a Turing machine, and are differentiated by their time or space (memory) requirements. For instance, the class P is the set of decision problems solvable by a deterministic Turing machine in polynomial time. There are, however, many complexity classes defined in terms of other types of problems (e.g. counting problems and function problems) and using other models of computation (e.g. probabilistic Turing machines, interactive proof systems, Boolean circuits, and quantum computers). The study of the relationships between complexity classes is a ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circuit Complexity
In theoretical computer science, circuit complexity is a branch of computational complexity theory in which Boolean functions are classified according to the size or depth of the Boolean circuits that compute them. A related notion is the circuit complexity of a recursive language that is decided by a uniform family of circuits C_,C_,\ldots (see below). Proving lower bounds on size of Boolean circuits computing explicit Boolean functions is a popular approach to separating complexity classes. For example, a prominent circuit class P/poly consists of Boolean functions computable by circuits of polynomial size. Proving that \mathsf\not\subseteq \mathsf would separate P and NP (see below). Complexity classes defined in terms of Boolean circuits include AC0, AC, TC0, NC1, NC, and P/poly. Size and depth A Boolean circuit with n input bits is a directed acyclic graph in which every node (usually called ''gates'' in this context) is either an input node of in-degree 0 labelle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gödel Prize
The Gödel Prize is an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, given jointly by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computational Theory (ACM SIGACT). The award is named in honor of Kurt Gödel. Gödel's connection to theoretical computer science is that he was the first to mention the " P versus NP" question, in a 1956 letter to John von Neumann in which Gödel asked whether a certain NP-complete problem could be solved in quadratic or linear time. The Gödel Prize has been awarded since 1993. The prize is awarded either at STOC (ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, one of the main North American conferences in theoretical computer science) or ICALP (International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming, one of the main European conferences in the field). To be eligible for the prize, a paper must be published ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
