Topic summary
Fixed-parameter tractable
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Parameterized complexity.
Such an algorithm is called a fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) algorithm, because the problem can be solved efficiently (i.e., in polynomial time) for constant values of the fixed parameter. A parameterized problem that allows for such an FPT algorithm is said to be a fixed-parameter tractable problem and belongs to the class FPT, and the early name of the theory of parameterized complexity was fixed-parameter tractability.