The golden ticket : P, NP, and the search for the impossible / Lance Fortnow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fortnow, Lance, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

NP-complete problems.

Computer algorithms.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (189 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"The P-NP problem is the most important open problem in computer science, if not all of mathematics. The Golden Ticket provides a nontechnical introduction to P-NP, its rich history, and its algorithmic implications for everything we do with computers and beyond. In this informative and entertaining book, Lance Fortnow traces how the problem arose during the Cold War on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and gives examples of the problem from a variety of disciplines, including economics, physics, and biology. He explores problems that capture the full difficulty of the P-NP dilemma, from discovering the shortest route through all the rides at Disney World to finding large groups of friends on Facebook. But difficulty also has its advantages. Hard problems allow us to safely conduct electronic commerce and maintain privacy in our online lives. The Golden Ticket explores what we truly can and cannot achieve computationally, describing the benefits and unexpected challenges of the P-NP problem"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 The Golden Ticket

Chapter 2 The Beautiful World

Chapter 3 P and NP

Chapter 4 The Hardest Problems in NP

Chapter 5 The Prehistory of P versus NP

Chapter 6 Dealing with Hardness

Chapter 7 Proving P ≠ NP

Chapter 8 Secrets

Chapter 9 Quantum

Chapter 10 The Future

Acknowledgments

Chapter Notes and Sources

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781400846610

1400846617

9781299156562

1299156568

OCLC:

828869723