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Non-constructive Algorithm Existence Proofs
The vast majority of positive results about computational problems are constructive proofs, i.e., a computational problem is proved to be solvable by showing an algorithm that solves it; a computational problem is shown to be in P (complexity) by showing an algorithm that solves it in time that is polynomial in the size of the input; etc. However, there are several non-constructive results, where an algorithm is proved to exist without showing the algorithm itself. Several techniques are used to provide such existence proofs. Using an unknown finite set In combinatorial game theory A simple example of a non-constructive algorithm was published in 1982 by Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway, and Richard K. Guy, in their book '' Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays''. It concerns the game of Sylver Coinage, in which players take turns specifying a positive integer that cannot be expressed as a sum of previously specified values, with a player losing when they are forced to speci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computational Problem
In theoretical computer science, a computational problem is a problem that may be solved by an algorithm. For example, the problem of factoring :"Given a positive integer ''n'', find a nontrivial prime factor of ''n''." is a computational problem. A computational problem can be viewed as a set of ''instances'' or ''cases'' together with a, possibly empty, set of ''solutions'' for every instance/case. For example, in the factoring problem, the instances are the integers ''n'', and solutions are prime numbers ''p'' that are the nontrivial prime factors of ''n''. Computational problems are one of the main objects of study in theoretical computer science. The field of computational complexity theory attempts to determine the amount of resources ( computational complexity) solving a given problem will require and explain why some problems are intractable or undecidable. Computational problems belong to complexity classes that define broadly the resources (e.g. time, space/memory, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Fellows
Michael Ralph Fellows AC HFRSNZ MAE (born June 15, 1952 in Upland, California) is a computer scientist and the Elite Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Informatics at the University of Bergen, Norway as of January 2016. Biography Fellows received his BA in Mathematics from Sonoma State University, and at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) his M.A. in Mathematics in 1982 and in 1985 his Ph.D. in Computer Science with the dissertation ''Encoding Graphs in Graphs''. Until January 2016, Fellows was professor at Charles Darwin University, Australia, and Director of the Parameterized Complexity Research Unit (PCRU). He has taught in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as in the UK and Europe; and has given invited talks around the world. In 2018, Fellows was awarded membership in Academia Europaea. In 2016, he received Australia's highest civilian honour, the Order of Australia, Companion to the Queen. In 2014 Fellows became one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constructive Proof
In mathematics, a constructive proof is a method of mathematical proof, proof that demonstrates the existence of a mathematical object by creating or providing a method for creating the object. This is in contrast to a non-constructive proof (also known as an existence proof or existence theorem, ''pure existence theorem''), which proves the existence of a particular kind of object without providing an example. For avoiding confusion with the stronger concept that follows, such a constructive proof is sometimes called an effective proof. A constructive proof may also refer to the stronger concept of a proof that is valid in constructive mathematics. Constructivism (mathematics), Constructivism is a mathematical philosophy that rejects all proof methods that involve the existence of objects that are not explicitly built. This excludes, in particular, the use of the law of the excluded middle, the axiom of infinity, and the axiom of choice, and induces a different meaning for some ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Existence Theorem
In mathematics, an existence theorem is a theorem which asserts the existence of a certain object. It might be a statement which begins with the phrase " there exist(s)", or it might be a universal statement whose last quantifier is existential (e.g., "for all , , ... there exist(s) ..."). In the formal terms of symbolic logic, an existence theorem is a theorem with a prenex normal form involving the existential quantifier, even though in practice, such theorems are usually stated in standard mathematical language. For example, the statement that the sine function is continuous everywhere, or any theorem written in big O notation, can be considered as theorems which are existential by nature—since the quantification can be found in the definitions of the concepts used. A controversy that goes back to the early twentieth century concerns the issue of purely theoretic existence theorems, that is, theorems which depend on non-constructive foundational material such as the axiom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stack Exchange
Stack Exchange is a network of question-and-answer (Q&A) websites on topics in diverse fields, each site covering a specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process. The reputation system allows the sites to be self-moderating. As of August 2019, the three most actively-viewed sites in the network are Stack Overflow, Super User, and Ask Ubuntu. All sites in the network are modeled after the initial site Stack Overflow, a Q&A site for computer programming questions created by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky. Further Q&A sites in the network are established, defined and eventually if found relevant brought to creation by registered users through a special site named Area 51. User contributions since May 2, 2018 are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Older content, contributed while the site used the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license or the earlier Creative Commons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Query Complexity
In computational complexity the decision tree model is the model of computation in which an algorithm is considered to be basically a decision tree, i.e., a sequence of ''queries'' or ''tests'' that are done adaptively, so the outcome of the previous tests can influence the test is performed next. Typically, these tests have a small number of outcomes (such as a yes–no question) and can be performed quickly (say, with unit computational cost), so the worst-case time complexity of an algorithm in the decision tree model corresponds to the depth of the corresponding decision tree. This notion of computational complexity of a problem or an algorithm in the decision tree model is called its decision tree complexity or query complexity. Decision trees models are instrumental in establishing lower bounds for complexity theory for certain classes of computational problems and algorithms. Several variants of decision tree models have been introduced, depending on the computational mode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Complexity Theory
Quantum complexity theory is the subfield of computational complexity theory that deals with complexity classes defined using quantum computers, a computational model based on quantum mechanics. It studies the hardness of computational problems in relation to these complexity classes, as well as the relationship between quantum complexity classes and classical (i.e., non-quantum) complexity classes. Two important quantum complexity classes are BQP and QMA. Background A complexity class is a collection of computational problems that can be solved by a computational model under certain resource constraints. For instance, the complexity class P (complexity), P is defined as the set of problems solvable by a Turing machine in polynomial time. Similarly, quantum complexity classes may be defined using quantum models of computation, such as the quantum computer, quantum circuit model or the equivalent quantum Turing machine. One of the main aims of quantum complexity theory is to find ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Law Of Excluded Middle
In logic, the law of excluded middle (or the principle of excluded middle) states that for every proposition, either this proposition or its negation is true. It is one of the so-called three laws of thought, along with the law of noncontradiction, and the law of identity. However, no system of logic is built on just these laws, and none of these laws provides inference rules, such as modus ponens or De Morgan's laws. The law is also known as the law (or principle) of the excluded third, in Latin ''principium tertii exclusi''. Another Latin designation for this law is ''tertium non datur'': "no third ossibilityis given". It is a tautology. The principle should not be confused with the semantical principle of bivalence, which states that every proposition is either true or false. The principle of bivalence always implies the law of excluded middle, while the converse is not always true. A commonly cited counterexample uses statements unprovable now, but provable in the future ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dot Product
In mathematics, the dot product or scalar productThe term ''scalar product'' means literally "product with a scalar as a result". It is also used sometimes for other symmetric bilinear forms, for example in a pseudo-Euclidean space. is an algebraic operation that takes two equal-length sequences of numbers (usually coordinate vectors), and returns a single number. In Euclidean geometry, the dot product of the Cartesian coordinates of two vectors is widely used. It is often called the inner product (or rarely projection product) of Euclidean space, even though it is not the only inner product that can be defined on Euclidean space (see Inner product space for more). Algebraically, the dot product is the sum of the products of the corresponding entries of the two sequences of numbers. Geometrically, it is the product of the Euclidean magnitudes of the two vectors and the cosine of the angle between them. These definitions are equivalent when using Cartesian coordinates. In mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robertson–Seymour Theorem
In graph theory, the Robertson–Seymour theorem (also called the graph minor theorem) states that the undirected graphs, partially ordered by the graph minor relationship, form a well-quasi-ordering. Equivalently, every family of graphs that is closed under minors can be defined by a finite set of forbidden minors, in the same way that Wagner's theorem characterizes the planar graphs as being the graphs that do not have the complete graph ''K''5 or the complete bipartite graph ''K''3,3 as minors. The Robertson–Seymour theorem is named after mathematicians Neil Robertson and Paul D. Seymour, who proved it in a series of twenty papers spanning over 500 pages from 1983 to 2004. Before its proof, the statement of the theorem was known as Wagner's conjecture after the German mathematician Klaus Wagner, although Wagner said he never conjectured it. A weaker result for trees is implied by Kruskal's tree theorem, which was conjectured in 1937 by Andrew Vázsonyi and proved in 1960 in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minor (graph Theory)
Minor may refer to: * Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities. ** A person who has not reached the age of majority * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Music theory *Minor chord ** Barbershop seventh chord or minor seventh chord *Minor interval *Minor key *Minor scale Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), the relation of one graph to another given certain conditions * Minor (linear algebra), the determinant of a certain submatrix People * Charles Minor (1835–1903), American college administrator * Charles A. Minor (21st-century), Liberian diplomat * Dan Minor (1909–1982), American jazz trombonist * Dave Minor (1922–1998), American basketball player * James T. Minor, US academic administrator and sociologist * Jerry Minor (born 1969), American actor, comedian and writer * Kyle Minor (born 1976), American writer * Mike Minor (actor) (born 1940), American actor * Mike Minor (baseball) (born 1987), American baseball p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Langston
Michael Allen Langston is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Tennessee. In several publications with Michael Fellows in the late 1980s, he showed that the Robertson–Seymour theorem could be used to prove the existence of a polynomial-time algorithm for problems such as linkless embedding without allowing the algorithm itself to be explicitly constructed; this work was foundational to the field of parameterized complexity. He has also collaborated with scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on the computational analysis of genomics data and reconstruction of gene regulatory networks. Langston received his doctorate (PhD) in 1981 at Texas A&M University in computing science. His dissertation was ''Processor scheduling with improved heuristic algorithms''. He worked at Washington State University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Maryland Global Campus Europe before taking his present position at the University of T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
