INTRACTABLE

PROBLEMS
Submitted To:
Mr. Shriprakash
Dwivedi.

Submitted By:
GROUP MEMBERS :
GAURI RAJPAL.(41319)
SHIVANI SINGH.(41324)

INDEX
Page No.

Introduction
Classification
Decision Problems
Complexity Class P
The Class NP
Relation Between P and NP
Polynomial Reductions
NP Complete Problems
Some Recent Advances
Conclusion
References

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INTRODUCTION
A Turing machine M is said to be of time
complexity T(n) if whenever M is given an
input w of length n , M halts after making
atmost T(n) moves, regardless of whether or
not M accepts.
In computational time complexity theory, we
have two kinds of problems
Problem is tractable if there
exists at least one polynomial
bound algorithm that solves it.
Problem is intractable if there
does not exist any polynomial
bound algorithm that solves it.

CLASSIFICATION
Tractable : An algorithm is polynomial bound if its
worst case growth rate can be bound by a polynomial
p(n) in the size n of the problem

p(n) an n k ... a1n a0 where k is a constant

Intractable : All algorithms that solve the problem are
not polynomial bound.
It has a worst case growth rate f(n) which cannot be
bound by a polynomial p(n) in the size n of the
problem.
For intractable problems the bounds are:

f ( n) c , or n
n

log n

, etc.

COMPLEXITY CLASS P
TRACTABLE
Class P: problems that can be solved in
polynomial time
O (nk) for some constant k.
Easy problems like sorting, making a
photo mosaic using duplicate tiles,
simulating the universe are all in P.
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THE CLASS NP
NP is the class of decision problems for
which there is a polynomial bounded
verification algorithm
It can be shown that:
all decision problems in P, and
decision problems such as traveling
salesman, knapsack, bin pack, are also in
NP
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THE RELATION
BETWEEN P AND NP
It is not known whether P = NP.
Problems in P can be solved quickly
Problems in NP can be verified quickly.
It is easier to verify a solution than to
solve a problem.
Some researchers believe that P and NP
are not the same class.

POLYNOMIAL REDUCTIONS
The definition of NP-completeness uses the notion of polynomial
reductions of one problem to another problem written as

We need the notion of a polytime transducer a TM that:

1.
Takes an input of length n.
2. Operates deterministically for some polynomial time p(n).
3. Produces an output on a separate output tape.
state

input

scratch
tapes

output

< p(n)

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Remember: important requirement
is that time < p(n).

Let L and M be langauges.

Say L is polytime reducible to M if there is a polytime transducer T
such that for every input w to T, the output x = T(w) is in M if and
only if w is in L.
in M
in L
not
in L

T
not in M

NP Complete Problems
A problem/language M is said to be NP-complete if for
every language L in NP, there is a polytime reduction from
L to M.
Fundamental property: if M has a polytime algorithm,
then L also has a polytime algorithm.
I.e., if M is in P, then every L in NP is also in P, or P
= NP.

SOME RECENT ADVANCES

The Class coNP and NP Complete

coNP = { { 0,1 }* \ L : L does not belong to NP }

It is widely believed that NP is not closed under complementation
i.e. NP is not equal to coNP.
This conjecture implies that P is not equal to NP ( because P is
closed under complementation.
Optimal Search Algorithms For NP Relations
Theorem: For every NP relation R there exists an algorithm A that
satisfies that A correctly solves the search problem of R.

PROMISE PROBLEMS ARE NATURAL

GENERALIZATIONS OF DECISION
PROBLEMS. REFER TO A 3- WAY PARTITION
OF THE SET OF STRINGS INTO YESINSTANCES, NO- INSTANCES AND
INSTANCES THAT VIOLATE THE PROMISE.
Many natural problems are actually promise
problems. For instance, consider the following
problem: Given adirected acyclic graph,
determine if the graph has apathof length 10.
Theyesinstances are directed acyclic graphs
with a path of length 10, whereas
thenoinstances are directed acyclic graphs with
no path of length 10. The promise is the set of
directed acyclic graphs.

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CONCLUSION
Is P = NP??
After decades of research, everyone believes that
P NP, i.e. that no polynomial-time solutions for
very hard problems exist. But no one has proven
it. If you do, you will be very famous, and
moderately wealthy..

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REFERENCES
Basics of Complexity Theory by Oded Goldreich
David Evans - www.cs.virginia.edu/evans

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THANK YOU!!