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Decision Problem
In computability theory and computational complexity theory, a decision problem is a computational problem that can be posed as a yes–no question on a set of input values. An example of a decision problem is deciding whether a given natural number is prime. Another example is the problem, "given two numbers ''x'' and ''y'', does ''x'' evenly divide ''y''?" A decision procedure for a decision problem is an algorithmic method that answers the yes-no question on all inputs, and a decision problem is called decidable if there is a decision procedure for it. For example, the decision problem "given two numbers ''x'' and ''y'', does ''x'' evenly divide ''y''?" is decidable since there is a decision procedure called long division that gives the steps for determining whether ''x'' evenly divides ''y'' and the correct answer, ''YES'' or ''NO'', accordingly. Some of the most important problems in mathematics are undecidable, e.g. the halting problem. The field of computational ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alphabet (computer Science)
In formal language theory, an alphabet, sometimes called a vocabulary, is a non-empty set of indivisible symbols/ characters/glyphs, typically thought of as representing letters, characters, digits, phonemes, or even words. The definition is used in a diverse range of fields including logic, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics. An alphabet may have any cardinality ("size") and, depending on its purpose, may be finite (e.g., the alphabet of letters "a" through "z"), countable (e.g., \), or even uncountable (e.g., \). Strings, also known as "words" or "sentences", over an alphabet are defined as a sequence of the symbols from the alphabet set. For example, the alphabet of lowercase letters "a" through "z" can be used to form English words like "iceberg" while the alphabet of both upper and lower case letters can also be used to form proper names like "Wikipedia". A common alphabet is , the binary alphabet, and a "00101111" is an example of a binary string. Infinite se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Function Problem
In computational complexity theory, a function problem is a computational problem where a single output (of a total function) is expected for every input, but the output is more complex than that of a decision problem. For function problems, the output is not simply 'yes' or 'no'. Definition A functional problem P is defined by a relation R over strings of an arbitrary alphabet \Sigma: : R \subseteq \Sigma^* \times \Sigma^*. An algorithm solves P if for every input x such that there exists a y satisfying (x, y) \in R, the algorithm produces one such y, and if there are no such y, it rejects. A promise function problem is allowed to do anything (thus may not terminate) if no such y exists. Examples A well-known function problem is given by the Functional Boolean Satisfiability Problem, FSAT for short. The problem, which is closely related to the SAT decision problem, can be formulated as follows: :Given a boolean formula \varphi with variables x_1, \ldots, x_n, find an as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NP (complexity)
In computational complexity theory, NP (nondeterministic polynomial time) is a complexity class used to classify decision problems. NP is the Set (mathematics), set of decision problems for which the Computational complexity theory#Problem instances, problem instances, where the answer is "yes", have mathematical proof, proofs verifiable in polynomial time by a deterministic Turing machine, or alternatively the set of problems that can be solved in polynomial time by a nondeterministic Turing machine.''Polynomial time'' refers to how quickly the number of operations needed by an algorithm, relative to the size of the problem, grows. It is therefore a measure of efficiency of an algorithm. * NP is the set of decision problems ''solvable'' in polynomial time by a nondeterministic Turing machine. * NP is the set of decision problems ''verifiable'' in polynomial time by a deterministic Turing machine. The first definition is the basis for the abbreviation NP; "Nondeterministic alg ... [...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) asks whether there exists an Interpretation (logic), interpretation that Satisfiability, satisfies a given Boolean logic, Boolean Formula (mathematical logic), formula. In other words, it asks whether the formula's variables can be consistently replaced by the values TRUE or FALSE to make the formula evaluate to TRUE. If this is the case, the formula is called ''satisfiable'', else ''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 proven to be NP-complete—this is the Cook–Levin theorem. This means that all problems in the complexity class NP (complexity), NP, which includes a wide range of natu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Complexity Class
In computational complexity theory, a complexity class is a set (mathematics), set of computational problems "of related resource-based computational complexity, complexity". The two most commonly analyzed resources are time complexity, time and space complexity, 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 complexity, time or space complexity, 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 (complexity), 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 problem (complexity), counting problems and function problems) and using other models of computation (e.g. probabil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Complete Problem
In computational complexity theory, a computational problem is complete for a complexity class if it is, in a technical sense, among the "hardest" (or "most expressive") problems in the complexity class. More formally, a problem ''p'' is called hard for a complexity class ''C'' under a given type of reduction if there exists a reduction (of the given type) from any problem in ''C'' to ''p''. If a problem is both hard for the class and a member of the class, it is complete for that class (for that type of reduction). A problem that is complete for a class ''C'' is said to be C-complete, and the class of all problems complete for ''C'' is denoted C-complete. The first complete class to be defined and the most well known is NP-complete, a class that contains many difficult-to-solve problems that arise in practice. Similarly, a problem hard for a class ''C'' is called C-hard, e.g. NP-hard. Normally, it is assumed that the reduction in question does not have higher computational com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Many-one Reduction
In computability theory and computational complexity theory, a many-one reduction (also called mapping reduction) is a reduction that converts instances of one decision problem (whether an instance is in L_1) to another decision problem (whether an instance is in L_2) using a computable function. The reduced instance is in the language L_2 if and only if the initial instance is in its language L_1. Thus if we can decide whether L_2 instances are in the language L_2, we can decide whether L_1 instances are in the language L_1 by applying the reduction and solving for L_2. Thus, reductions can be used to measure the relative computational difficulty of two problems. It is said that L_1 reduces to L_2 if, in layman's terms L_2 is at least as hard to solve as L_1. This means that any algorithm that solves L_2 can also be used as part of a (otherwise relatively simple) program that solves L_1. Many-one reductions are a special case and stronger form of Turing reductions. With many-one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Undecidable Problems
In computability theory, an undecidable problem is a decision problem for which an effective method (algorithm) to derive the correct answer does not exist. More formally, an undecidable problem is a problem whose language is not a recursive set; see the article Decidable language. There are uncountably many undecidable problems, so the list below is necessarily incomplete. Though undecidable languages are not recursive languages, they may be subsets of Turing recognizable languages: i.e., such undecidable languages may be recursively enumerable. Many, if not most, undecidable problems in mathematics can be posed as word problems: determining when two distinct strings of symbols (encoding some mathematical concept or object) represent the same object or not. For undecidability in axiomatic mathematics, see List of statements undecidable in ZFC. Problems about abstract machines * The halting problem (determining whether a Turing machine halts on a given input) and the morta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recursively Enumerable Set
In computability theory, a set ''S'' of natural numbers is called computably enumerable (c.e.), recursively enumerable (r.e.), semidecidable, partially decidable, listable, provable or Turing-recognizable if: *There is an algorithm such that the set of input numbers for which the algorithm halts is exactly ''S''. Or, equivalently, *There is an algorithm that enumerates the members of ''S''. That means that its output is a list of all the members of ''S'': ''s''1, ''s''2, ''s''3, ... . If ''S'' is infinite, this algorithm will run forever, but each element of S will be returned after a finite amount of time. Note that these elements do not have to be listed in a particular way, say from smallest to largest. The first condition suggests why the term ''semidecidable'' is sometimes used. More precisely, if a number is in the set, one can ''decide'' this by running the algorithm, but if the number is not in the set, the algorithm can run forever, and no information is returned. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recursive Set
In computability theory, a set of natural numbers is computable (or decidable or recursive) if there is an algorithm that computes the membership of every natural number in a finite number of steps. A set is noncomputable (or undecidable) if it is not computable. Definition A subset S of the natural numbers is computable if there exists a total computable function f such that: :f(x)=1 if x\in S :f(x)=0 if x\notin S. In other words, the set S is computable if and only if the indicator function \mathbb_ is computable. Examples *Every recursive language is a computable. *Every finite or cofinite subset of the natural numbers is computable. **The empty set is computable. **The entire set of natural numbers is computable. **Every natural number is computable. *The subset of prime numbers is computable. *The set of Gödel numbers is computable. Non-examples *The set of Turing machines that halt is not computable. *The set of pairs of homeomorphic finite simplicial complexes is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
