Computational Complexity

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. Pt. I. Algorithms. 1. Problems And Algorithms. 2. Turing Machines. 3. Computability -- Pt. Ii. Logic. 4. Boolean Logic. 5. First-order Logic. 6. Undecidability In Logic -- Pt. Iii. P And Np. 7. Relations Between Complexity Classes. 8. Reductions And Completeness. 9. Np-complete Problems. 10. Conp And Function Problems. 11. Randomized Computation. 12. Cryptography. 13. Approximability. 14. On P Vs. Np -- Pt. Iv. Inside P. 15. Parallel Computation. 16. Logarithmic Space -- Pt. V. Beyond Np. 17. The Polynomial Hierarchy. 18. Computation That Counts. 19. Polynomial Space. 20. A Glimpse Beyond. Christos H. Papadimitriou. Reprinted With Corrections, August 1995.--t.p. Verso. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. This modern introduction to the Theory of Computer Science is the first unified introduction to Computational Complexity. It offers a comprehensive and accessible treatment of the theory of algorithms and complexitythe elegant body of concepts and methods developed by computer scientists over the past 30 years for studying the performance and limitations of computer algorithms. The book is self-contained in that it develops all necessary mathematical prerequisites from such diverse fields such as computability, logic, number theory and probability. Offers a comprehensive treatment of the theory of algorithms and complexity. 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, and more. Offers a comprehensive and accessible treatment of the theory of algorithms and complexity. Develops all the necessary mathematical prerequisites from such diverse fields as computability, logic, number theory, combinatorics, and probability. DLC: Computational complexity.