Computational
Intractability
Polynomial - time Reductions
• Showing a problem X is as hard as a problem Y
• A solution to X will give a solution to Y
Polynomial - time Reductions
• Showing a problem X is as hard as a problem Y
• A solution to X will give a solution to Y
• Y ≤p X
• Y is polynomial time reducible to X
• If X can be solved in polynomial time, then Y can be solved in
polynomial time
• If Y cannot be solved in polynomial time, then X cannot be
solved in polynomial time
Polynomial - time Reductions
• Are there problems which are not polynomial time solvable?
Polynomial - time Reductions
• Reduction : INDEPENDENT SET to VERTEX COVER
Polynomial - time Reductions
• INDEPENDENT SET problem
• Input : Graph G
• Output : Find a maximum cardinality Independent set of G.
Polynomial - time Reductions
• INDEPENDENT SET problem (Optimisation)
• Input : Graph G
• Output : Find a maximum cardinality Independent set of G.
• INDEPENDENT SET problem (Decision )
• Input : Graph G, k
• Output : Does G have an independent set of size at least k ?
Polynomial - time Reductions
• Reduction : INDEPENDENT SET to VERTEX COVER
• INDEPENDENT SET problem
• Input : Graph G, k
• Output : Does G have an independent set of size at least k ?
• VERTEX COVER problem
• Input : Graph G, k
• Output : Does G have a vertex cover of size at most k ?
Polynomial - time Reductions
• Reduction : INDEPENDENT SET to VERTEX COVER
• INDEPENDENT SET problem
• Input : Graph G, k
• Output : Does G have an independent set of size at least k ?
• VERTEX COVER problem
• Input : Graph G, n-k
Polynomial - time Reductions
• Reduction : INDEPENDENT SET to VERTEX COVER
• INDEPENDENT SET problem
• Input : Graph G, k
• Output : Does G have an independent set of size at least k ?
• VERTEX COVER problem
• Input : Graph G, n-k
G has an independent set of size k if and only if G has a vertex
cover of size n - k
Polynomial - time Reductions
• SET COVER problem
• Input : Universe U of n elements, A collection S of m subsets of
U, k
• Output : Does there exist k subsets such that their union is U ?
Polynomial - time Reductions
• VERTEX COVER to SET COVER
• VERTEX COVER problem
• Input : Graph G, k
• Output : Does G have a vertex cover of size at most k ?
• SET COVER instance
• U = E(G)
• S : For all i in V, add a set of edges that are incident to vertex i
• k’ = k
Polynomial - time Reductions
• VERTEX COVER to SET COVER
• VERTEX COVER problem
• Input : Graph G, k
• Output : Does G have a vertex cover of size at most k ?
• SET COVER instance
• U = E(G)
• S : For all i in V, add a set of edges that are incident to vertex i
• k’ = k
Polynomial - time Reductions
• (U,S) has a set cover of size k if and only if G has a vertex cover
of size k
Polynomial - time Reductions
• Transitivity of reductions
Complexity classes
• Ef icient Certi ication : Given a proposed solution, checking it
is very easy.
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Complexity classes
• Ef icient Certi ication : Given a proposed solution, checking it
is very easy.
• Ef icient Certi ier
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Complexity classes
• P : set of all problems X for which there exists an algorithm A
with polynomial running time that solves X
• NP : Set of all problems for which there exists an ef icient
certi ier
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Complexity classes
• P : set of all problems X for which there exists an algorithm A
with polynomial running time that solves X
• NP : Set of all problems for which there exists an ef icient
certi ier
• What is the relation between P and NP ?
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Complexity classes
• NP-Complete problems
• (considered to be ) hardest problems in NP
Complexity classes
• NP-Complete problems
• (considered to be ) hardest problems in NP
• X is an NP- Complete problem if
1. X is in NP
2. Every problem Y in NP is polynomial time reducible to X
Complexity classes
Cook & Levin’s Theorem
CIRCUIT SATISFIABILITY problem is NP- Complete
Complexity classes
Circuit Satis iabiliy problem
Given a circuit with
• sources - nodes with no incoming edge, labelled 0, 1 or variables
• operators - ∨ , ∧ , ¬
• output - no outgoing edges
Given a circuit, decide whether there is an assignment of values to
the inputs that causes value of output to be 1
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