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Polynomial-time Reduction
In computational complexity theory, a polynomial-time reduction is a method for solving one problem using another. One shows that if a hypothetical subroutine solving the second problem exists, then the first problem can be solved by transforming or reducing it to inputs for the second problem and calling the subroutine one or more times. If both the time required to transform the first problem to the second, and the number of times the subroutine is called is polynomial, then the first problem is polynomial-time reducible to the second. A polynomial-time reduction proves that the first problem is no more difficult than the second one, because whenever an efficient algorithm exists for the second problem, one exists for the first problem as well. By contraposition, if no efficient algorithm exists for the first problem, none exists for the second either. Polynomial-time reductions are frequently used in complexity theory for defining both complexity classes and complete problems ... [...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] |
PSPACE-complete
In computational complexity theory, a decision problem is PSPACE-complete if it can be solved using an amount of memory that is polynomial in the input length (polynomial space) and if every other problem that can be solved in polynomial space can be transformed to it in polynomial time. The problems that are PSPACE-complete can be thought of as the hardest problems in PSPACE, the class of decision problems solvable in polynomial space, because a solution to any one such problem could easily be used to solve any other problem in PSPACE. Problems known to be PSPACE-complete include determining properties of regular expressions and context-sensitive grammars, determining the truth of quantified Boolean formulas, step-by-step changes between solutions of combinatorial optimization problems, and many puzzles and games. Theory A problem is defined to be PSPACE-complete if it can be solved using a polynomial amount of memory (it belongs to PSPACE) and every problem in PSPACE can be tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crossing Number (graph Theory)
In graph theory, the crossing number of a graph is the lowest number of edge crossings of a plane drawing of the graph . For instance, a graph is planar if and only if its crossing number is zero. Determining the crossing number continues to be of great importance in graph drawing, as user studies have shown that drawing graphs with few crossings makes it easier for people to understand the drawing. The study of crossing numbers originated in Turán's brick factory problem, in which Pál Turán asked for a factory plan that minimized the number of crossings between tracks connecting brick kilns to storage sites. Mathematically, this problem can be formalized as asking for the crossing number of a complete bipartite graph. The same problem arose independently in sociology at approximately the same time, in connection with the construction of sociograms. Turán's conjectured formula for the crossing numbers of complete bipartite graphs remains unproven, as does an analogous formu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polynomial Hierarchy
In computational complexity theory, the polynomial hierarchy (sometimes called the polynomial-time hierarchy) is a hierarchy of complexity classes that generalize the classes NP and co-NP. Each class in the hierarchy is contained within PSPACE. The hierarchy can be defined using oracle machines or alternating Turing machines. It is a resource-bounded counterpart to the arithmetical hierarchy and analytical hierarchy from mathematical logic. The union of the classes in the hierarchy is denoted PH. Classes within the hierarchy have complete problems (with respect to polynomial-time reductions) which ask if quantified Boolean formulae hold, for formulae with restrictions on the quantifier order. It is known that equality between classes on the same level or consecutive levels in the hierarchy would imply a "collapse" of the hierarchy to that level. Definitions There are multiple equivalent definitions of the classes of the polynomial hierarchy. Oracle definition For the oracle def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PSPACE
In computational complexity theory, PSPACE is the set of all decision problems that can be solved by a Turing machine using a polynomial amount of space. Formal definition If we denote by SPACE(''t''(''n'')), the set of all problems that can be solved by Turing machines using ''O''(''t''(''n'')) space for some function ''t'' of the input size ''n'', then we can define PSPACE formally asArora & Barak (2009) p.81 :\mathsf = \bigcup_ \mathsf(n^k). PSPACE is a strict superset of the set of context-sensitive languages. It turns out that allowing the Turing machine to be nondeterministic does not add any extra power. Because of Savitch's theorem,Arora & Barak (2009) p.85 NPSPACE is equivalent to PSPACE, essentially because a deterministic Turing machine can simulate a non-deterministic Turing machine without needing much more space (even though it may use much more time).Arora & Barak (2009) p.86 Also, the complements of all problems in PSPACE are also in PSPACE, meaning tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NP-hard
In computational complexity theory, NP-hardness ( non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness) is the defining property of a class of problems that are informally "at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP". A simple example of an NP-hard problem is the subset sum problem. A more precise specification is: a problem ''H'' is NP-hard when every problem ''L'' in NP can be reduced in polynomial time to ''H''; that is, assuming a solution for ''H'' takes 1 unit time, ''H''s solution can be used to solve ''L'' in polynomial time. As a consequence, finding a polynomial time algorithm to solve any NP-hard problem would give polynomial time algorithms for all the problems in NP. As it is suspected that P≠NP, it is unlikely that such an algorithm exists. It is suspected that there are no polynomial-time algorithms for NP-hard problems, but that has not been proven. Moreover, the class P, in which all problems can be solved in polynomial time, is contained in the NP class. Defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Existential Theory Of The Reals
In mathematical logic, computational complexity theory, and computer science, the existential theory of the reals is the set of all true sentences of the form \exists X_1 \cdots \exists X_n \, F(X_1,\dots, X_n), where the variables X_i are interpreted as having real number values, and where F(X_1,\dots X_n) is a quantifier-free formula involving equalities and inequalities of real polynomials. A sentence of this form is true if it is possible to find values for all of the variables that, when substituted into formula F, make it become true.. The decision problem for the existential theory of the reals is the problem of finding an algorithm that decides, for each such sentence, whether it is true or false. Equivalently, it is the problem of testing whether a given semialgebraic set is non-empty. This decision problem is NP-hard and lies in PSPACE. Thus it has significantly lower complexity than Alfred Tarski's quantifier elimination procedure for deciding statements in the first-or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
P-complete
In computational complexity theory, a decision problem is P-complete (complete for the complexity class P) if it is in P and every problem in P can be reduced to it by an appropriate reduction. The notion of P-complete decision problems is useful in the analysis of: * which problems are difficult to parallelize effectively, * which problems are difficult to solve in limited space. specifically when stronger notions of reducibility than polytime-reducibility are considered. The specific type of reduction used varies and may affect the exact set of problems. Generically, reductions stronger than polynomial-time reductions are used, since all languages in P (except the empty language and the language of all strings) are P-complete under polynomial-time reductions. If we use NC reductions, that is, reductions which can operate in polylogarithmic time on a parallel computer with a polynomial number of processors, then all P-complete problems lie outside NC and so cannot be effecti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Log-space Reduction
In computational complexity theory, a log-space reduction is a reduction computable by a deterministic Turing machine using logarithmic space. Conceptually, this means it can keep a constant number of pointers into the input, along with a logarithmic number of fixed-size integers.Arora & Barak (2009) p. 88 It is possible that such a machine may not have space to write down its own output, so the only requirement is that any given bit of the output be computable in log-space. Formally, this reduction is executed via a log-space transducer. Such a machine has polynomially-many configurations, so log-space reductions are also polynomial-time reductions. However, log-space reductions are probably weaker than polynomial-time reductions; while any non-empty, non-full language in P is polynomial-time reducible to any other non-empty, non-full language in P, a log-space reduction from an NL-complete language to a language in L, both of which would be languages in P, would imply the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NC (complexity)
In computational complexity theory, the class NC (for "Nick's Class") is the set of decision problems decidable in polylogarithmic time on a parallel computer with a polynomial number of processors. In other words, a problem with input size ''n'' is in NC if there exist constants ''c'' and ''k'' such that it can be solved in time using parallel processors. Stephen Cook coined the name "Nick's class" after Nick Pippenger, who had done extensive research on circuits with polylogarithmic depth and polynomial size.Arora & Barak (2009) p.120 Just as the class P can be thought of as the tractable problems ( Cobham's thesis), so NC can be thought of as the problems that can be efficiently solved on a parallel computer.Arora & Barak (2009) p.118 NC is a subset of P because polylogarithmic parallel computations can be simulated by polynomial-time sequential ones. It is unknown whether NC = P, but most researchers suspect this to be false, meaning that there are probably some tractable pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NL (complexity)
In computational complexity theory, NL (Nondeterministic Logarithmic-space) is the complexity class containing decision problems that can be solved by a nondeterministic Turing machine using a logarithmic amount of memory space. NL is a generalization of L, the class for logspace problems on a deterministic Turing machine. Since any deterministic Turing machine is also a nondeterministic Turing machine, we have that L is contained in NL. NL can be formally defined in terms of the computational resource nondeterministic space (or NSPACE) as NL = NSPACE(log ''n''). Important results in complexity theory allow us to relate this complexity class with other classes, telling us about the relative power of the resources involved. Results in the field of algorithms, on the other hand, tell us which problems can be solved with this resource. Like much of complexity theory, many important questions about NL are still open (see Unsolved problems in computer science). Occasionally NL ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L (complexity)
In computational complexity theory, L (also known as LSPACE or DLOGSPACE) is the complexity class containing decision problems that can be solved by a deterministic Turing machine using a logarithmic amount of writable memory space., Definition 8.12, p. 295., p. 177. Formally, the Turing machine has two tapes, one of which encodes the input and can only be read, whereas the other tape has logarithmic size but can be read as well as written. Logarithmic space is sufficient to hold a constant number of pointers into the input and a logarithmic number of boolean flags, and many basic logspace algorithms use the memory in this way. Complete problems and logical characterization Every non-trivial problem in L is complete under log-space reductions, so weaker reductions are required to identify meaningful notions of L-completeness, the most common being first-order reductions. A 2004 result by Omer Reingold shows that USTCON, the problem of whether there exists a path ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
