Completeness and Reduction in Algebraic Complexity Theory: 7 (Algorithms and Computation in Mathematics, 7) - Softcover

Bürgisser, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3642086047 ISBN 13: 9783642086045

Publisher: Springer, 2010

Synopsis

This is a thorough and comprehensive treatment of the theory of NP-completeness in the framework of algebraic complexity theory. Coverage includes Valiant's algebraic theory of NP-completeness; interrelations with the classical theory as well as the Blum-Shub-Smale model of computation, questions of structural complexity; fast evaluation of representations of general linear groups; and complexity of immanants.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Bürgisser is an internationally recognized expert in complexity theory. He is associate editor of the journal Computational Complexity and he was invited speaker at the 2010 International Congress Mathematicians. Felipe Cucker is well known for his work on complexity over the real numbers, jointly with L. Blum, S. Smale and M. Shub. He also worked in learning theory and made seminal contributions to condition numbers in optimization and their probabilistic analyses. F.C. is former chair of the Society for the Foundations of Computational Mathematics and the current managing editor of the society's journal.

From the Back Cover

One of the most important and successful theories in computational complex­ ity is that of NP-completeness. This discrete theory is based on the Turing machine model and achieves a classification of discrete computational prob­ lems according to their algorithmic difficulty. Turing machines formalize al­ gorithms which operate on finite strings of symbols over a finite alphabet. By contrast, in algebraic models of computation, the basic computational step is an arithmetic operation (or comparison) of elements of a fixed field, for in­ stance of real numbers. Hereby one assumes exact arithmetic. In 1989, Blum, Shub, and Smale [12] combined existing algebraic models of computation with the concept of uniformity and developed a theory of NP-completeness over the reals (BSS-model). Their paper created a renewed interest in the field of algebraic complexity and initiated new research directions. The ultimate goal of the BSS-model (and its future extensions) is to unite classical dis­ crete complexity theory with numerical analysis and thus to provide a deeper foundation of scientific computation (cf. [11, 101]). Already ten years before the BSS-paper, Valiant [107, 110] had proposed an analogue of the theory of NP-completeness in an entirely algebraic frame­ work, in connection with his famous hardness result for the permanent [108]. While the part of his theory based on the Turing approach (#P-completeness) is now standard and well-known among the theoretical computer science com­ munity, his algebraic completeness result for the permanents received much less attention.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3642086047
• ISBN 13: 9783642086045
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168