the p versus np problem - mathematics | u-m lsa …lagarias/mathclub/winter2016/...coloring of a...
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: The P versus NP Problem - Mathematics | U-M LSA …lagarias/MATHCLUB/winter2016/...coloring of a graph with a given number of colors or maximally efficient garbage collection. Whether](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022020315/5ab074687f8b9abc2f8b71df/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Nesbitt Room
The P versus NP Problem
Igor Kriz
Abstract for 10 March 2016
1
Can a computer program solve a problem in an amount of time that is at most a polynomial function of the size of the input data? If we do not succeed in writing such a program, can we prove that one does not exist? A problem is called NP if its answer can at least be checked in polynomial time. The hardest of these problems are called NP-complete, and can be all reduced to one another in polynomial time. Examples include such seemingly unrelated questions as coloring of a graph with a given number of colors or maximally efficient garbage collection. Whether these problems can be actually solved in polynomial time is unknown: it is the greatest open problem of computer science. But people very strongly suspect that it cannot be done.
2