Computational complexity : a conceptual perspective /
Oded Goldreich.
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- 1 online resource (xxiv, 606 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
Introduction and preliminaries -- P, NP and NP-completeness -- Variations on P and NP -- More resources, more power -- Space complexity -- Randomness and counting -- The bright side of hardness -- Pseudorandom generators -- Probabilistic proof systems -- Relaxing the requirements -- Appendix A: Glossary of complexity classes -- Appendix B: On the quest for lower bounds -- Appendix C: On the foundations of modern cryptography -- Appendix D: Probabilistic preliminaries and advanced topics in randomization -- Appendix E: Explicit constructions -- Appendix F: Some omitted proofs -- Appendix G: Some computational problems.
Complexity theory is a central field of the theoretical foundations of computer science. It is concerned with the general study of the intrinsic complexity of computational tasks; that is, it addresses the question of what can be achieved within limited time (and/or with other limited natural computational resources). This book offers a conceptual perspective on complexity theory. It is intended to serve as an introduction for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, either as a textbook or for self-study. The book will also be useful to experts, since it provides expositions of the various sub-areas of complexity theory such as hardness amplification, pseudorandomness and probabilistic proof systems. In each case, the author starts by posing the intuitive questions that are addressed by the sub-area and then discusses the choices made in the actual formulation of these questions, the approaches that lead to the answers, and the ideas that are embedded in these answers.