Computational Complexity - Christos H. Papadimitriou

Computational Complexity

Author: Christos H. Papadimitriou
Paperback: 523 pages
Publisher: Pearson; 1 edition (December 10, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0201530821
ISBN-13: 978-0201530827

This text offers a comprehensive and accessible treatment of the theory of algorithms and complexity - the elegant body of concepts and methods developed by computer scientists over the past 30 years for studying the performance and limitations of computer algorithms. Among topics covered are: reductions and NP-completeness, cryptography and protocols, randomized algorithms, and approximability of optimization problems, circuit complexity, the "structural" aspects of the P=NP question, parallel computation, the polynomial hierarchy, and many others. Several sophisticated and recent results are presented in a rather simple way, while many more are developed in the form of extensive notes, problems, and hints. The book is surprisingly self-contained, in that it develops all necessary mathematical prerequisites from such diverse fields as computability, logic, number theory, combinatorics and probability.