Computational complexityIn computer science, the computational complexity or simply complexity of an algorithm is the amount of resources required to run it. Particular focus is given to computation time (generally measured by the number of needed elementary operations) and memory storage requirements. The complexity of a problem is the complexity of the best algorithms that allow solving the problem. The study of the complexity of explicitly given algorithms is called analysis of algorithms, while the study of the complexity of problems is called computational complexity theory.
Computational complexity theoryIn theoretical computer science and mathematics, computational complexity theory focuses on classifying computational problems according to their resource usage, and relating these classes to each other. A computational problem is a task solved by a computer. A computation problem is solvable by mechanical application of mathematical steps, such as an algorithm. A problem is regarded as inherently difficult if its solution requires significant resources, whatever the algorithm used.
Time complexityIn computer science, the time complexity is the computational complexity that describes the amount of computer time it takes to run an algorithm. Time complexity is commonly estimated by counting the number of elementary operations performed by the algorithm, supposing that each elementary operation takes a fixed amount of time to perform. Thus, the amount of time taken and the number of elementary operations performed by the algorithm are taken to be related by a constant factor.
Approximation algorithmIn computer science and operations research, approximation algorithms are efficient algorithms that find approximate solutions to optimization problems (in particular NP-hard problems) with provable guarantees on the distance of the returned solution to the optimal one. Approximation algorithms naturally arise in the field of theoretical computer science as a consequence of the widely believed P ≠ NP conjecture. Under this conjecture, a wide class of optimization problems cannot be solved exactly in polynomial time.
Space complexityThe space complexity of an algorithm or a computer program is the amount of memory space required to solve an instance of the computational problem as a function of characteristics of the input. It is the memory required by an algorithm until it executes completely. This includes the memory space used by its inputs, called input space, and any other (auxiliary) memory it uses during execution, which is called auxiliary space. Similar to time complexity, space complexity is often expressed asymptotically in big O notation, such as etc.
Cubic graphIn the mathematical field of graph theory, a cubic graph is a graph in which all vertices have degree three. In other words, a cubic graph is a 3-regular graph. Cubic graphs are also called trivalent graphs. A bicubic graph is a cubic bipartite graph. In 1932, Ronald M. Foster began collecting examples of cubic symmetric graphs, forming the start of the Foster census.
Graph labelingIn the mathematical discipline of graph theory, a graph labelling is the assignment of labels, traditionally represented by integers, to edges and/or vertices of a graph. Formally, given a graph G = (V, E), a vertex labelling is a function of V to a set of labels; a graph with such a function defined is called a vertex-labeled graph. Likewise, an edge labelling is a function of E to a set of labels. In this case, the graph is called an edge-labeled graph. When the edge labels are members of an ordered set (e.
Quantum complexity theoryQuantum complexity theory is the subfield of computational complexity theory that deals with complexity classes defined using quantum computers, a computational model based on quantum mechanics. It studies the hardness of computational problems in relation to these complexity classes, as well as the relationship between quantum complexity classes and classical (i.e., non-quantum) complexity classes. Two important quantum complexity classes are BQP and QMA.
Graph coloringIn graph theory, graph coloring is a special case of graph labeling; it is an assignment of labels traditionally called "colors" to elements of a graph subject to certain constraints. In its simplest form, it is a way of coloring the vertices of a graph such that no two adjacent vertices are of the same color; this is called a vertex coloring. Similarly, an edge coloring assigns a color to each edge so that no two adjacent edges are of the same color, and a face coloring of a planar graph assigns a color to each face or region so that no two faces that share a boundary have the same color.
Spectral graph theoryIn mathematics, spectral graph theory is the study of the properties of a graph in relationship to the characteristic polynomial, eigenvalues, and eigenvectors of matrices associated with the graph, such as its adjacency matrix or Laplacian matrix. The adjacency matrix of a simple undirected graph is a real symmetric matrix and is therefore orthogonally diagonalizable; its eigenvalues are real algebraic integers. While the adjacency matrix depends on the vertex labeling, its spectrum is a graph invariant, although not a complete one.
Graph theoryIn mathematics, graph theory is the study of graphs, which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of vertices (also called nodes or points) which are connected by edges (also called links or lines). A distinction is made between undirected graphs, where edges link two vertices symmetrically, and directed graphs, where edges link two vertices asymmetrically. Graphs are one of the principal objects of study in discrete mathematics.
Asymptotic computational complexityIn computational complexity theory, asymptotic computational complexity is the usage of asymptotic analysis for the estimation of computational complexity of algorithms and computational problems, commonly associated with the usage of the big O notation. With respect to computational resources, asymptotic time complexity and asymptotic space complexity are commonly estimated. Other asymptotically estimated behavior include circuit complexity and various measures of parallel computation, such as the number of (parallel) processors.
Expander graphIn graph theory, an expander graph is a sparse graph that has strong connectivity properties, quantified using vertex, edge or spectral expansion. Expander constructions have spawned research in pure and applied mathematics, with several applications to complexity theory, design of robust computer networks, and the theory of error-correcting codes. Intuitively, an expander graph is a finite, undirected multigraph in which every subset of the vertices that is not "too large" has a "large" boundary.
L-notationL-notation is an asymptotic notation analogous to big-O notation, denoted as for a bound variable tending to infinity. Like big-O notation, it is usually used to roughly convey the rate of growth of a function, such as the computational complexity of a particular algorithm. It is defined as where c is a positive constant, and is a constant . L-notation is used mostly in computational number theory, to express the complexity of algorithms for difficult number theory problems, e.g.
Big O notationBig O notation is a mathematical notation that describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends towards a particular value or infinity. Big O is a member of a family of notations invented by Paul Bachmann, Edmund Landau, and others, collectively called Bachmann–Landau notation or asymptotic notation. The letter O was chosen by Bachmann to stand for Ordnung, meaning the order of approximation. In computer science, big O notation is used to classify algorithms according to how their run time or space requirements grow as the input size grows.
Dual graphIn the mathematical discipline of graph theory, the dual graph of a planar graph G is a graph that has a vertex for each face of G. The dual graph has an edge for each pair of faces in G that are separated from each other by an edge, and a self-loop when the same face appears on both sides of an edge. Thus, each edge e of G has a corresponding dual edge, whose endpoints are the dual vertices corresponding to the faces on either side of e.
Polynomial-time approximation schemeIn computer science (particularly algorithmics), a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) is a type of approximation algorithm for optimization problems (most often, NP-hard optimization problems). A PTAS is an algorithm which takes an instance of an optimization problem and a parameter ε > 0 and produces a solution that is within a factor 1 + ε of being optimal (or 1 – ε for maximization problems). For example, for the Euclidean traveling salesman problem, a PTAS would produce a tour with length at most (1 + ε)L, with L being the length of the shortest tour.
Kőnig's theorem (graph theory)In the mathematical area of graph theory, Kőnig's theorem, proved by , describes an equivalence between the maximum matching problem and the minimum vertex cover problem in bipartite graphs. It was discovered independently, also in 1931, by Jenő Egerváry in the more general case of weighted graphs. A vertex cover in a graph is a set of vertices that includes at least one endpoint of every edge, and a vertex cover is minimum if no other vertex cover has fewer vertices.
