Paradigms for Fast Parallel Approximability: 8 (Cambridge International Series on Parallel Computation, Series Number 8)
Cambridge University Press, 7/10/1997
EAN 9780521431705, ISBN10: 0521431700
Hardcover, 166 pages, 25.4 x 18 x 1.5 cm
Language: English
Various problems in computer science are 'hard', that is NP-complete, and so not realistically computable; thus in order to solve them they have to be approximated. This book is a survey of the basic techniques for approximating combinatorial problems using parallel algorithms. Its core is a collection of techniques that can be used to provide parallel approximations for a wide range of problems (for example, flows, coverings, matchings, travelling salesman problems, graphs), but in order to make the book reasonably self-contained, the authors provide an introductory chapter containing the basic definitions and results. A final chapter deals with problems that cannot be approximated, and the book is ended by an appendix that gives a convenient summary of the problems described in the book. This is an up-to-date reference for research workers in the area of algorithms, but it can also be used for graduate courses in the subject.
1. Introduction
2. Basic concepts
3. Extremal graph properties
4. Rounding, interval partitioning and separation
5. Primal-dual method
6. Graph decomposition
7. Further parallel approximations
8. Non-approximability
9. Syntactical defined phrases
Appendix
Definition of problems
Bibliography
Index.