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INTRODUCTION TO
THEORETICAL
COMPUTER SCIENCE
Friday 4th August, 2017 03:05
Preface 19
Mathematical Background 25
1 Introduction 39
3 Defining computation 65
21 Cryptography 279
Bibliography 321
Contents (detailed)
Preface 19
0.1 To the student 20
0.2 To potential instructors 21
0.3 Acknowledgements 22
Mathematical Background 25
0.4 Example: There are infinitely many primes 26
0.4.1 Writing proofs 28
0.4.2 Patterns in proofs 28
0.5 Some discrete mathematics notions 30
0.6 Sets 30
0.7 Functions 32
0.8 Asymptotics and big-Oh notation 34
0.9 Proofs by induction 35
0.10 Logic, graphs, discrete probability 36
0.11 Mathematical notation 37
0.12 Acknowledgements 38
1 Introduction 39
1.0.1 Example: A faster way to multiply 41
1.0.2 Beyond Karatsubas algorithm 43
1.0.3 Algorithms beyond arithmetic 43
1.0.4 On the importance of negative results. 45
1.1 Lecture summary 45
1.1.1 Roadmap to the rest of this course 46
1.2 Exercises 47
1.3 Bibliographical notes 48
8
3 Defining computation 65
3.1 Defining computation 65
3.2 The NAND Programming language 68
3.2.1 Adding one-bit numbers 70
3.2.2 Adding two-bit numbers 71
3.2.3 Composition in NAND programs 73
3.3 Syntactic sugar 74
3.3.1 Constants 75
3.3.2 Conditional statements 75
3.3.3 Functions / Macros 76
3.3.4 Example: 76
3.3.5 More indices 77
3.3.6 Non-Boolean variables, lists and integers 77
3.3.7 Storing integers 78
3.4 Adding and multiplying n bit numbers 79
3.4.1 Multiplying numbers 80
9
21 Cryptography 279
21.1 Lecture summary 279
21.2 Exercises 279
21.3 Bibliographical notes 279
16
Bibliography 321
Preface
We make ourselves no promises, but we cherish the hope that the unob-
structed pursuit of useless knowledge will prove to have consequences in the
future as in the past . . . An institution which sets free successive gen-
erations of human souls is amply justified whether or not this graduate or
that makes a so-called useful contribution to human knowledge. A poem, a
symphony, a painting, a mathematical truth, a new scientific fact, all bear
in themselves all the justification that universities, colleges, and institutes of
research need or require, Abraham Flexner, The Usefulness of Useless
Knowledge, 1939.
The best way to engage with the material is to read these notes
actively. While reading, I encourage you to stop and think about the
following:
When I state a theorem, stop and try to think of how you would
prove it yourself before reading the proof in the notes. You will be
amazed how much you can understand a proof better even after
only 5 minutes of attempting it yourself.
At any point in the text, try to think what are the natural ques-
tions that arise, and see whether or not they are answered in the
following.
0.3 Acknowledgements
A classical example for a proof is Euclids proof that there are in-
nitely many prime numbers. The rst step is to understand what
this statement means. One way to state this statement is that there
is no largest prime number: for every number N, there is always a
prime number p that is larger than N. Now that we understand the
statement, we can try to prove it.
The above is a perfectly valid proof, but just like it is often helpful
to break down a computer program to several functions, it is often
useful to break proofs into simpler claims. Let us start by stating the
statement as theorem:
PA = (1 N ) + 1 . (1)
2 3 ( P 1) ( P + 1) N = B (3)
B{2,...,N }\{ P}
0.3. Exercise (Irrationality of the square root of 3). Write a proof that
n is irrational?
In a proof for the statement X, all the text between the words
Proof: and QED should be focused on establishing that X is true.
Digressions, examples, or ruminations will just confuse the reader.
The proof should have a clear logical ow in the sense that every
sentence or equation in it should have some purpose and it should
be crystal-clear to the reader what this purpose is. When you write a
proof, for every equation or sentence you include, ask yourself:
2. If so, does this proposition follow from the previous steps, or are
we going to establish it in the next step?
ax2 + bx + c = a(b + s)2 /(4a2 ) + b(b + s)/(2a) + c = (b2 2bs + s2 )/(4a) + (b2 + bs)/(2a) + c .
(4)
Rearranging the terms of Eq. (4) we get
We now review some basic notions that we will use. This is not
meant to be a substitute for a course on discrete mathematics, and, as
mentioned above, there are excellent online resources to catch up on
this material if needed.
0.6 Sets
Of course there is more than one way to write the same set, and
often we will use intuitive notation listing a few examples that illus-
trate the rules, and hence we can also dene EVEN as
Note that a set can be either nite (such as the set {2, 4, 7} ) or
innite (such as the set EVEN). There are two sets that we will
31
N = {0, 1, 2, . . .} (8)
7
Some texts dene the natural numbers
is (as weve seen) the set of all natural numbers,7 and
as the set {1, 2, 3, . . .}. Like the style
of bracing in a computer program, it
{0, 1}n = {( x0 , . . . , xn1 ) : x0 , . . . , xn1 {0, 1}} (9) doesnt make much difference which
convention you choose, as long as you
is the set of all n-length binary strings for some natural number n. are consistent. In this course we will
That is {0, 1}n is the set of all length-n lists of zeroes and ones. We start the natural numbers from zero.
{0, 1}3 = {000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111} . (10)
We will use the notation [n] for the set {0, . . . , n 1}. For every
string x {0, 1}n and i [n], we write xi for the ith coordinate of x. If
x and y are strings, then xy denotes their concatenation. That is, if x
{0, 1}n and y {0, 1}m , then xy is equal to the string z {0, 1}n+m
such that for i [n], zi = xi and for i {n, . . . , n + m 1}, zi = yin .
or more concisely as
where denotes the set union operation. That is, for sets S and T,
S T is the set that contains all elements that are either in S or in T.8
8
One minor technicality is, that as we
The notions of lists/tuples and the operator extend beyond the mentioned, the set {0, 1} contains
also the string of length 0, which we
setting of binary strings. See any discrete mathematics text for their denote by . This is just a technical
denitions, as well as the standard operators on sets which include convention, like starting the natural
numbers from zero, and will not make
not just union () but also intersection () and set difference (\).
any difference in almost all cases in this
course, and so you can safely ignore
0.7. Exercise (Inclusion Exclusion). 1. Let A, B be nite sets. Prove this zero-length string 99.9% of the
that | A B| = | A| + | B| | A B|. time.
0.7 Functions
Input Output
0 0
1 1
2 0
3 1
4 0
5 1
6 0
7 1
8 0
9 1
Is the same as dening F ( x ) = ( x mod 2). If F : S T satises
that F ( x ) 6= F (y) for all x 6= y then we say that F is one-to-one.
0.10. Lemma (Power set). For every finite S and T, there are | T ||S| func-
tions from S to T
Before reading the proof it is good to verify the lemma for a few
small examples. For example, if S is the set {0, 1, 2, 3} and T = {0, 1},
33
Input Output
0 0
1 1
2 1
3 0
To specify a function F : {0, 1, 2, 3} {0, 1} we need to spec-
ify these four values that appear in the output column. Since we
have two choices for each one of these columns, the total number of
functions is exactly 24 . We now prove the lemma in general:
We can also use the notion of limits to dene big and little oh
notation. You can verify that F = o ( G ) (or, equivalently, G = ( F ))
F (n) F (n)
if and if lim G(n) = 0. Similarly, if the limit lim G(n) exists and is
n n
a nite number then F (n) = O( G (n)). If you are familiar with the
notion of supremum, then you can verify that F = O( G ) if and only if
F (n)
lim sup G(n) < .
n
When adding two functions, we only care about the larger one.
For example, for the purpose of Oh notation, n3 + 100n2 is the same
as n3 , and in general in any polynomial, we only care about the
larger exponent.
(a) P implies Q
and
(b) P is true
then Q is true.
(a) For every n > 0, if Q(0), . . . , Q(n 1) are all true then Q(n) is
true
and
(Usually proving (a) is the hard part, though there are examples
where the base case (b) is quite subtle.) By repeatedly applying
Modus Ponens, we can see that Q(1) is true, Q(2) is true, etc.. and
this implies that Q(n) is true for every n.
Logical operators such as AND (), OR (), and NOT (), as well
as the quantiers and .
As with the other topics mentioned here, you can review these
notions using the lecture notes of Lehman, Leighton and Meyer or
the other resources mentioned on the CS 121 website.
0.17. Exercise. Prove that for every undirected graph G of 100 ver-
tices, if every vertex has degree at most 4, then there exists a subset
37
Special sets: The set {0, 1}n is the set of 0/1 strings of length n,
the set {0, 1} is the set of 0/1 strings of arbitrary nite length.
The set N = {0, 1, 2, 3, . . .} is the set of natural numbers. We
denote by [n] is the set {0, 1, . . . , n 1} of numbers between 0 and
n 1. We denote the empty set (set with no elements) by , and use
the same symbol to also denote the empty string (string of zero
length). If there is possibility for confusion then we will use "" for
the latter.
Indexing from zero: Note that we start the natural numbers from
0, as opposed to 1. Similarly, we use the set [n] for {0, 1, . . . , n 1}
instead of {1, . . . , n}. Also, if x {0, 1} is a string of length k,
then we will index the coordinates of x by x0 , . . . , xk1 .
More special sets: While the above are the most common ones,
we will also use the set Z = { a b : a N, b {+1, 1}} = 9
The letter Z stands for the German
{0, 1, 2, . . .} of (positive, zero, or negative) integers,9 and the set word Zahlen which means num-
R of real numbers (that have a fractional component). Given any bers.
nite set , we use n to denote the set of length n strings over the
alphabet and to denote the set of all nite-length strings over
the same alphabet.
0.12 Acknowledgements
1
Introduction
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMDCCCCLVI
or even grasped. Its no wonder that Eratosthene, who was the rst
person to calculate the earths diameter (up to about ten percent
error) and Hipparchus who was the rst to calculate the distance to
the moon, did not use a Roman-numeral type system but rather the
Babylonian sexadecimal (i.e., base 60) place-value system.
the actual computing device that will execute it. The digit by digit
standard algorithm is vastly better than iterated addition regardless if
the technology to implement it is a silicon based computer chip or a
third grader with pen and paper.
x y = 10n x y + 10n/2 [( x + x ) (y + y ) x y x y ] + x y
(1.2)
The key observation is that the formula Eq. (1.2) reduces comput-
ing the product of two n digit numbers to computing three products
of n/2 digit numbers (namely x y , x y and ( x + x ) (y + y ))
as well as performing a constant number (in fact eight) additions,
subtractions, and multiplications by 10n or 10n/2 (the latter corre-
sponding to simple shifts). Intuitively this means that as the number
of digits doubles, the cost of multiplying triples instead of quadrupling,
as happens in the naive algorithm. This implies that multiplying
numbers of n = 2 digits costs about 3 = nlog2 3 n1.585 operations.
In a Exercise 1.3, you will formally show that the number of single
digit operations that Karatsubas algorithm uses for multiplying n
digit integers is at most 1000nlog2 3 (see also Fig. 1.1).
saying that the algorithm takes at most 1000 n3 steps and similarly
when a statement such as running time is (n2 ) can be thought
of as saying that the algorithm takes at least 0.001 n2 steps. A fuller
review Big Oh notation and asymptotics of running time appears in the
mathematical background section.
These algorithms are being used not just for the natural applica-
44 introduction to theoretical computer science
Even for classical questions, studied through the ages, new discov-
eries are still being made. For the basic task, already of importance to
the Greeks, of discovering whether an integer is prime or composite,
efcient probabilistic algorithms were only discovered in the 1970s,
while the rst deterministic polynomial-time algorithm was only
found in 2002. For the related problem of actually nding the factors
of a composite number, new algorithms were found in the 1980s, and
(as well see later in this course) discoveries in the 1990s raised the
tantalizing prospect of obtaining faster algorithms through the use of
quantum mechanical effects.
Despite all this progress, there are still many more questions than
answers in the world of algorithms. For almost all natural problems,
we do not know whether the current algorithm is the best, or
whether a signicantly better one is still waiting to be discovered.
Even for the classical problem of multiplying numbers, we have not
yet answered the age-old question of is multiplication harder than
addition? . But at least, as we will see in this course, we now know
the right way to ask it.
introduction 45
( The notes for every lecture will end in such a lecture summary section
that contains a few of the take home messages of the lecture. It is not
46 introduction to theoretical computer science
1.2 Exercises
a. n operations.
b. n2 operations.
c. n log n operations.
d. 2n operations.
e. n! operations.
1.3. Exercise (Analysis of Karatsubas Algorithm). a. Suppose that
T1 , T2 , T3 , . . . is a sequence of numbers such that T2 10 and for
every n, Tn 3Tn/2 + Cn. Prove that Tn 10Cnlog2 3 for every n.7
7
Hint: Use a proof by induction -
suppose that this is true for all ns from
b. Prove that the number of single digit operations that Karat- 1 to m, prove that this is true also for
m + 1.
subas algorithm takes to multiply two n digit numbers is at most
1000nlog2 3 .
1.4. Exercise. Implement in the programming language of
your choice functions Gradeschool_multiply(x,y) and
Karatsuba_multiply(x,y) that take two arrays of digits x and
y and return an array representing the product of x and y (where x is
identied with the number x[0]+10*x[1]+100*x[2]+... etc..) using
the gradeschool algorithm and the Karatsuba algorithm respectively.
At what number of digits does the Karatsuba algorithm beat the
gradeschool one?
For an overview of what well see in this course, you could do far
worse than read Bernard Chazelles wonderful essay on the Algo-
rithm as an Idiom of modern science.
1.5 Acknowledgements
2
Computation and Representation
The alphabet was a great invention, which enabled men to store and to learn
with little effort what others had learned the hard way-that is, to learn from
books rather than from direct, possibly painful, contact with the real world.,
B.F. Skinner
I found that every number, which may be expressed from one to ten, sur-
passes the preceding by one unit: afterwards the ten is doubled or tripled . . .
until a hundred; then the hundred is doubled and tripled in the same manner
as the units and the tens . . . and so forth to the utmost limit of numeration.,
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizm, 820, translation by Fredric Rosen,
1831.
) by adding one more bit that represents the sign. So, the string
(, x0 , . . . , xn1 ) {0, 1}n+1 will represent the number
h i
(1) x0 20 + xn1 2n (2.1)
2.1.2 Notation
etc. etc.
Last but not least, our focus on the moment is on nding algo-
rithms that correctly compute a function F on every input x. This
is sometimes known as worst case analysis. We can also try to study
60 introduction to theoretical computer science
2.2.2 Terminology
2.4 Exercises
a. An integer x
b. An undirected graph G.
c. A directed graph H
and V are the same. Let B : N {0, 1} be the function such that for
every x N, B( x ) is the binary representation of x.
b. Prove that xS 2| x| 1.
2.7 Acknowledgements
there is no reason why mental as well as bodily labor should not be econo-
mized by the aid of machinery, Charles Babbage, 1852
If, unwarned by my example, any man shall undertake and shall succeed
in constructing an engine embodying in itself the whole of the executive
department of mathematical analysis upon different principles or by simpler
mechanical means, I have no fear of leaving my reputation in his charge, for he
alone will be fully able to appreciate the nature of my efforts and the value of
their results., Charles Babbage, 1864
10 and 39, and trusted the reader to be able to extrapolate from these 1
Indeed, extrapolation from examples
examples.1 is still the way most of us rst learn
algorithms such as addition and
Here is how al-Khwarizmi described how to solve an equation of multiplication, see Fig. 3.3)
the form x2 + bx = c:2 2
Translation from The Algebra of
Ben-Musa, Fredric Rosen, 1831.
[How to solve an equation of the form ] roots and squares are equal to
numbers: For instance one square , and ten roots of the same, amount to
thirty-nine dirhems that is to say, what must be the square which, when
increased by ten of its own root, amounts to thirty-nine? The solution is this:
you halve the number of the roots, which in the present instance yields five.
This you multiply by itself; the product is twenty-five. Add this to thirty-nine
the sum is sixty-four. Now take the root of this, which is eight, and subtract
from it half the number of roots, which is five; the remainder is three. This is
the root of the square which you sought for; the square itself is nine.
For the purposes of this course, we will need a much more pre-
cise way to dene algorithms. Fortunately, at least at the moment,
computers lag far behind school-age children in learning from ex-
amples, and hence in the 20th century people have come up with
exact formalisms for describing algorithms, namely programming lan-
guages. Here is al-Khwarizmis quadratic equation solving algorithm
described in Python:
def solve_eq(b,c):
# return solution of x^2 + bx = c using Al Khwarizmi's instructions
val1 = b/2.0 # halve the number of the roots
val2 = val1*val1 # this you multiply by itself
68 introduction to theoretical computer science
ues they can take are either zero or one. The semantics of executing
a NAND program is that when such a line is executed, the variable
foo is assigned the negation of the logical AND of (i.e., the NAND 4
The logical AND of two bits x, x
operation applied to) the values of the two variables bar and baz.4 {0, 1} is equal to 1 if x = x = 1
and is equal to 0 otherwise. Thus
If a variable hasnt been assigned a value before, then its default N AND (0, 0) = N AND (0, 1) =
N AND (1, 0) = 1, while N AND (1, 1) =
value is zero. 0.
On the other hand if we execute this program on the input 11, then
we get the following execution trace:
You can verify that on input 10 the program will also output
1, while on input 00 it will output zero. Hence the output of this
program on every input is summarized in the following table:
Input Output
00 0
01 1
10 1
11 0
In other words, this program computes the exclusive or (also
known as XOR) function.
Now that we can compute XOR, let us try something just a little
more ambitious: adding a pair of one-bit numbers. That is, we
want to compute the function ADD1 : {0, 1}2 {0, 1}2 such that
ADD ( x0 , x1 ) is the binary representation of the addition of the two
numbers x0 and x1 . Since the sum of two 0/1 values is a number in
{0, 1, 2}, the output of the function ADD1 is of length two bits.
Input Output
x_0 x_1 y_0 y_1
0 0 0 0
1 0 1 0 8
This is a special case of the general
0 1 1 0 rule that when you add two digits
1 1 0 1 x, x {0, 1, . . . , b 1} over the b-ary
basis (in our case b = 2), then the
One can see that y_0 will be the XOR of x_0 and x_1 and y_1 will output digit is x + x ( mod b) and the
be the AND of x_0 and x_1.8 Thus we can compute one bit variable carry digit is ( x + x )/b.
defining computation 71
and so you can see that the output (0, 1) is indeed the binary
encoding of 1 + 1 = 2.
Let us now show how to compute addition of two bit numbers. That
is, the function ADD2 : {0, 1}4 {0, 1}3 that takes two numbers
x, x each between 0 and 3 (each represented with two bits using the
binary representation) and outputs their sum, which is a number
between 0 and 6 that can be represented using three bits. The grade-
school algorithm gives us a way to compute ADD2 using ADD1 .
That is, we can add each digit using ADD1 and then take care of the
carry. That is, if the two input numbers have the form x0 + 2x1 and
x2 + 2x3 , then the output number y0 + y1 2 + y3 22 can be computed via
the following pseudocode (see also Fig. 3.5)
v := z_1 NAND u
w := c_1 NAND u
y_1 := v NAND w
// 3b) y_2 = z'_1 OR (z_1 AND c_1)
// = NAND(NOT(z'_1), NAND(z_1,c_1))
u := z'_1 NAND z'_1
v := z_1 NAND c_1
y_2 := u NAND v
foo := bar
3.3.1 Constants
We can create variables zero and one that are have the values 0 and 1
respectively by adding the lines
Note that since for every x {0, 1}, N AND ( x, x ) = 1, the variable
one will get the value 1 regardless of the value of x0 , and the variable
10
We could have saved a couple of lines
zero will get the value N AND (1, 1) = 0.10 Hence we can replace using the convention that uninitialized
code such as a := 0 with a := one NAND one and similarly b := 1 variables default to 0, but its always
nice to be explicit.
will be replaced with b:= zero NAND zero.
if (a) {
...
some code here
...
}
To ensure that there is code that will only be executed when the
variable a is equal to 1. We can do so by replacing every variable
var that is assigned a value in the code by a variable tempvar and
then execute it normally. After it is executed, we assign to every such
variable the value MUX(a,var,tempvar) where MUX : {0, 1}3
{0, 1} is the multiplexer function that on input ( a, b, c) outputs b if
a = 0 and c if a = 1. This function has a 4-line NAND program:
76 introduction to theoretical computer science
with
...
function_code'
...
3.3.4 Example:
Using these features, we can express the code of the ADD2 function a
bit more succinctly as
def c := AND(a,b) {
notc := a NAND b
c := notc NAND c
}
def c := XOR(a,b) {
u := a NAND b
v := a NAND u
w := b NAND u
defining computation 77
c := v NAND w
}
y_0 := XOR(x_0,x_2) // add first digit
c_1 := AND(x_0,x_2)
z_1 := XOR(x_1,x_2) // add second digit
c_2 := AND(x_1,x_2)
y_1 := XOR(c_1,y_2) // add carry from before
c'_2 := AND(c_1,y_2)
y_2 := XOR(c'_2,x_2)
foo := "b"
foo_0 := 0
foo_1 := 0
foo_2 := 1
foo := "be"
as a shorthand for
foo_{0,0} := 0
foo_{0,1} := 0
78 introduction to theoretical computer science
foo_{0,2} := 1
foo_{1,0} := 1
foo_{1,1} := 0
foo_{1,2} := 0
foo_0 := 1
foo_1 := 1
foo_2 := 0
foo_3 := 1
foo_4 := 1
foo_5 := 1
foo_6 := 0
foo_7 := 0
while
foo := -5
foo_0 := 1
foo_1 := 0
foo_2 := 1
foo_3 := 1
foo_4 := 0
foo_5 := 1
foo_6 := 1
foo_7 := 1
defining computation 79
foo_8 := 0
foo_9 := 0
foo := [12,7,19,33]
j := k + l
if (m*n>k) {
code...
}
We have seen how to add one and two bit numbers. We can use the
gradeschool algorithm to show that NAND programs can add n-bit
numbers for every n:
ATLEASTTWO( a, b, c) = ( a b) ( a c) (b c)
= N AND ( NOT ( N AND ( N AND ( a, b), N AND ( a, c))), N AND (b, c))
(3.1)
We have seen that NAND programs can add and multiply numbers.
But can they compute other type of functions, that have nothing to do
with arithmetic? Here is one example:
LOOKUPk ( x, i ) = xi (3.2)
z_0 := LOOKUP_1(x_0,x_1,x_4)
z_1 := LOOKUP_1(x_2,x_3,x_4)
y_0 := LOOKUP_1(z_0,z_1,x_5)
z_0 := LOOKUP_2(x_0,x_1,x_2,x_3,x_8,x_9)
z_1 := LOOKUP_2(x_4,x_5,x_6,x_7,x_8,x_9)
y_0 := LOOKUP_1(z_0,z_1,x_10)
Proof. If the most signicant bit ik1 of i is zero, then the index i is
in {0, . . . , 2k1 1} and hence we can perform the lookup on the
rst half of x and the result of LOOKUPk ( x, i ) will be the same as
a = LOOKUPk1 ( x0 , . . . , x2k1 1 , i0 , . . . , ik1 ). On the other hand,
if this most signicant bit ik1 is equal to 1, then the index is in
{2k1 , . . . , 2k 1}, in which case the result of LOOKUPk ( x, i ) is the
same as b = LOOKUPk1 ( x2k1 , . . . , x2k 1 , i0 , . . . , ik1 ). Thus we
can compute LOOKUPk ( x, i ) by rst computing a and b and then
outputting LOOKUP1 ( a, b, ik1 ).
a = LOOKUP_(k-1)(x_0,...,x_(2^(k-1)-1),i_0,...,i_(k-2))
b = LOOKUP_(k-1)(x_(2^(k-1)),...,x_(2^(k-1),i_0,...,i_(k-2))
y_0 = LOOKUP_1(a,b,i_{k-1})
We will prove by induction that L(k) 4(2k 1). This is true for k = 1
by our construction. For k > 1, using the inductive hypothesis and
Eq. (3.5), we get that
Thus I would not blame the reader if they were not particularly
looking forward to a long sequence of examples of functions that
can be computed by NAND programs. However, it turns out we are
not going to need this, as we can show in one fell swoop that NAND
programs can compute every nite function:
Input Output
0000 1
0001 1
0010 0
0011 0
0100 1
0101 0
0110 0
0111 1
1000 0
1001 0
1010 0
1011 0
1100 1
1101 1
1110 1
1111 1
specied by a table of its values for each one of the 2n inputs. Here is
for example one particular function G : {0, 1}4 {0, 1}:14
G0000 := 1
G0001 := 1
G0010 := 0
G0011 := 0
G0100 := 1
G0101 := 0
G0110 := 0
G0111 := 1
G1000 := 0
G1001 := 0
G1010 := 0
G1011 := 0
G1100 := 1
G1101 := 1
G1110 := 1
G1111 := 1
y_0 := LOOKUP(G0000,G0001,G0010,G0011,G0100,G0101,G0110,G0111,
G1000,G1001,G1010,G1011,G1100,G1101,G1111,x_0,x_1,x_2,x_3)
There was nothing about the above reasoning that was particular
to this program. Given every function F : {0, 1}n {0, 1}, we can
write a NAND program that does the following:
which would not improve at all on the bound of Theorem 3.6. How-
ever, a more careful observation shows that we are making some
k
redundant computations. After all, there are only 22 distinct functions
mapping k bits to one bit. If a and a satisfy that Fa = Fa then we
dont need to spend 2k lines computing both Fa ( x ) and Fa ( x ) but
rather can only compute the variable P_h ai and then copy P_h ai to
k
P_h a i using O(1) lines. Since we have 22 unique functions, we can
k
bound the total cost to compute P by O(22 2k ) + O(2nk ). Now it just
becomes a matter of calculation. By our choice of k, 2k = n 2 log n
k n
and hence 22 = 2n2 . Since n/2 2k n, we can bound the total
cost of computing F ( x ) (including also the additional O(2nk ) cost of
n
computing LOOKUPnk ) by O( 2n2 n) + O(2n /n), which is what we
wanted to prove.
Discussion: In retrospect, it is perhaps not surprising that every
nite function can be computed with a NAND program. A nite
function F : {0, 1}n {0, 1}m can be represented by simply the list
of its outputs for each one of the 2n input values. So it makes sense
that we could write a NAND program of similar size to compute it.
What is more interesting is that some functions, such as addition and
multiplication, have a much more efcient representation: one that
only requires O(n2 ) or even smaller number of lines.
3.9 Exercises
3.10. Exercise (Computing MUX). Prove that the NAND program be-
low computes the function MUX (or LOOKUP1 ) where MUX ( a, b, c)
equals a if c = 0 and equals b if c = 1:
3.13. Exercise. Write a NAND program that adds two 3-bit numbers.
(to be completed)
3.12 Acknowledgements
4
Code as data, data as code
The term code script is, of course, too narrow. The chromosomal structures
are at the same time instrumental in bringing about the development they
foreshadow. They are law-code and executive power - or, to use another simile,
they are architects plan and builders craft - in one. , Erwin Schrdinger,
1944.
It turns out that we dont even need to pay that much of an over-
head for universality
4.2. Theorem (Efficient bounded universality of NAND programs).
For every s, n, m N there is a NAND program of at most O(s log s) lines
that computes the function EVALs,n,m : {0, 1}s+n {0, 1}m defined above.
code as data, data as code 93
Since the actual labels for the variables are meaningless (except
for designating if they are input, output or workspace variables),
we can encode them as numbers from 0 to t 1, where t is a bound
94 introduction to theoretical computer science
[ [2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1],
[3, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0],
[4, 0, 0, 1, 2, 0],
[1, 0, 3, 0, 4, 0] ]
Note that even if we renamed u, v and w to foo, bar and blah then
the representation of the program will remain the same (which is ne,
since it does not change its semantics).
EVAL(2,1,
[[2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1],
[3, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0],
[4, 0, 0, 1, 2, 0],
[1, 0, 3, 0, 4, 0]],
[0,1]) 7
Python does not distinguish between
lists and arrays, but allows constant
then this corresponds to running our XOR program on the input time random access to an indexed
elements to both of them. One could
(0, 1) and hence the resulting output is [1]. argue that if we allowed programs of
truly unbounded length (e.g., larger
Accessing an element of the array avars at a given index takes a than 264 ) then the price would not be
constant but logarithmic in the length
constant number of basic operations.7 Hence (since n, m s), apart
of the array/lists, but the difference
from the initialization phase that costs O(ts) = O(s2 ) steps, the between O(1) and O(log s) will not be
program above will use O(s) basic operations. important for our discussions.
96 introduction to theoretical computer science
The total cost to compute EVAL will be s times the cost to com-
pute two GETVALs and one SETVAL, which will come up to
O(s(st) log(st)) = O(s3 log s). This completes the proof of Theo-
rem 4.2.
course, but let me convince you why you should believe it is possible
in principle. We can use CPython (the reference implementation for
Python), to evaluate every Python program using a C program. We
can combine this with a C compiler to transform a Python program
to various avors of machine language.
The astute reader might notice that the above paragraphs only
outlined why it should be possible to nd for every particular Python-
computable function F, a particular comparably efcient NAND
program P that computes F. But this still seems to fall short of our
goal of writing a Python interpreter in NAND which would mean
that for every parameter n, we come up with a single NAND program
code as data, data as code 99
4.3. Theorem (Counting programs). There are at most 2O(s log s) func-
tions computed by s-line NAND programs.
Note: We can also establish Theorem 4.3 directly from the ASCII
representation of the source code. Since an s-line NAND program
has at most 3s distinct variables, we can change all the workspace
variables of such a program to have the form work_hi i for i between
0 and 3s 1 without changing the function that it computes. This
means that after removing comments and extra whitespaces, every
line of such a program (which will the form var := var NAND var
for variable identiers which will be either x_###,y_### or work_###
where ### is some number smaller than 3s) will require at most,
say, 20 + 3 log10 (3s) O(log s) characters. Since each one of those
characters can be encoded using seven bits in the ASCII representa-
tion, we see that the number of functions computed by s-line NAND
programs is at most 2O(s log s) .
We have seen before that every function mapping {0, 1}n to {0, 1}
can be computed by an O(2n /n) line program. We now see that
this is tight in the sense that some functions do require such an
astronomical number of lines to compute. In fact, as we explore
in the exercises below, this is the case for most functions. Hence
functions that can be computed in a small number of lines (such as
addition, multiplication, nding short paths in graphs, or even the
EVAL function) are the exception, rather than the rule.
4.7 Exercises
15
TODO: EVAL is known as Circuit
Evaluation typically. More references
regarding oblivious RAM etc..
4.8 Bibliographical notes
15
code as data, data as code 103
4.10 Acknowledgements
5
Physical implementations of NAND programs
For a vertex v thats neither a sink nor a source and is labeled with
f B, if its incoming neighbors are vertices v1 , . . . , vk (sorted in
order) then we let val(v) = f (val(v1 ), . . . , val(vk )).
Sink vertices get the same value of their sole incoming neighbor.
The output of the circuit on input x is the string y {0, 1}m such
that for every i {0, . . . , m 1}, yi is the value of the sink vertex
labeled with i. We say that the circuit C computes the function F if for
every x {0, 1}n , the output of the circuit C on input x is equal to
F ( x ).
S( f ) S ( f ) S( f ) + n + m + 10 (5.1)
We have seen that every function f : {0, 1}k {0, 1} has a NAND
program with at most 4 2k lines, and hence Theorem 5.2 implies the
following theorem (see Exercise 5.5):
S ( f ) (4 2k ) S B ( f ) (5.2)
One particular basis we can use are threshold gates. Given any vector
w = (w0 , . . . , wk1 ) of integers and some integer t (some or all of
whom could be negative), the threshold function corresponding to w, t
is the function Tw,t : {0, 1}k {0, 1} that maps w to 1 if and only if
i=0 wi xi t.
A Boolean circuit is a labeled graph, and hence we can use the adja-
cency list representation to represent an s-vertex circuit over an arity-k
physical implementations of nand programs 115
Theorem 5.3 implies that every circuit C of s gates over a k-ary ba-
sis B can be transformed into a NAND program of O(s 2k ) lines, and
hence we can combine this transformation with last lectures evalua-
tion procedure for NAND programs to conclude that CIRCEVAL can
be evaluated in time O(2k s3 poly(log s)).
Weve seen that NAND gates can be implemented using very differ-
ent systems in the physical world. What about the reverse direction?
Can NAND programs simulate any physical computer?
ing the size of any physical computing device and the time it takes
to compute the output. That is we can stipulate that any function
that can be computed by a device of volume V and time t, must be
computable by a NAND program that has at most (Vt) lines for
some constants , . The exact values for , are not so clear, but it
is generally accepted that if F : {0, 1}n {0, 1} is an exponentially
hard function, in the sense that it has not NAND program of fewer
than, say, 2n/2 lines, then a demonstration of a physical device that
can compute F for moderate input lengths (e.g., n = 500) would be a
violation of the PECTT.
Spaghetti sort: One of the rst lower bounds that Computer Sci-
ence students encounter is that sorting n numbers requires making
(n log n) comparisons. The spaghetti sort is a description of a
proposed mechanical computer that would do this faster. The
idea is that to sort n numbers x1 , . . . , xn , we could cut n spaghetti
noodles into lengths x1 , . . . , xn , and then if we simply hold them
together in our hand and bring them down to a at surface, they
will emerge in sorted order. There are a great many reasons why
this is not truly a challenge to the PECTT hypothesis, and I will
not ruin the readers fun in nding them out by her or himself.
those pegs in the way that will minimize the total energy which
turns out to be a function of the total length of the line segments.
The problem with this device of course is that nature, just like
people, often gets stuck in local optima. That is, the resulting
conguration will not be one that achieves the absolute minimum
of the total energy but rather one that cant be improved with
local changes. Aaronson has carried out actual experiments (see
Fig. 5.10), and saw that while this device often is successful for
three or four pegs, it starts yielding suoptimal results once the
number of pegs grows beyond that.
5.11 Exercises
5.6. Exercise (Universal basis). For every one of the following sets,
either prove that it is a universal basis or prove that it is not. 1. B =
{, , }. (To make all of them be function on two inputs, dene
( x, y) = x.)
2. B = {, }.
5.14 Acknowledgements
6
Loops and infinity
We thus see that when n = 1, nine operation-cards are used; that when
n = 2, fourteen Operation-cards are used; and that when n > 2, twenty-five
operation-cards are used; but that no more are needed, however great n may
be; and not only this, but that these same twenty-five cards suffice for the
successive computation of all the numbers, Ada Augusta, countess of 1
Translation of Sketch of the Analyt-
Lovelace, 18431 ical Engine by L. F. Menabrea, Note
G.
It is found in practice that (Turing machines) can do anything that could
be described as rule of thumb or purely mechanical. . . (Indeed,) it is now
agreed amongst logicians that calculable by means of (a Turing Machine) is
the correct accurate rendering of such phrases., Alan Turing, 1948
w := x_1 NAND u
s := v NAND w
u := s NAND x_2
v := s NAND u
w _
:= x 2 NAND u
s := v NAND w
u := s NAND x_3
v := s NAND u
w _
:= x 3 NAND u
s := v NAND w
u := s NAND x_4
v := s NAND u
w _
:= x 4 NAND u
y_0 := v NAND w
0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 0, . . . (6.1)
# Do s := s XOR val
ns := s NAND s
y_0 := ns NAND ns
u := val NAND s
v := s NAND u
w := val NAND u
126 introduction to theoretical computer science
s := v NAND w
When we invoke this program on the input 010, we get the follow-
ing execution trace:
We say that a NAND program completed its r-th round when the
index variable i completed the sequence:
0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 0, . . . , 0, 1, . . . , r, r 1, . . . , 0 (6.2)
1 + 2 + 4 + 6 + + 2r = r2 + r + 1 (6.3)
pc r (r + 1) pc (r + 1)2
index ( pc) = (6.4)
(r + 1)(r + 2) pc otherwise
p
where r = pc + 1/4 1/2. (We ask you to prove this in
Exercise 6.4.)
While NAND+ only has a single outer loop, we can use condition-
als to implement inner loops as well. That is, we can replace code
such as
loops and infinity 127
preloop_code
while (a) {
loop_code
}
postloop_code
by
// finishedpreloop is initialized to 0
// finishedloop is initalized to 0
if NOT(finishedpreloop) {
code1
finishedpreloop := 1
}
if NOT(finishedloop) {
if (a) {
code2
}
if NOT(a) {
finishedloop := 1
}
}
if (finishedloop) {
postloop_code
}
for length 10, length 100, or length 1000 parities as needed. This
notion of a single algorithm that can compute functions of all input
lengths is known as uniformity of computation and hence we think of
NAND++ as uniform model of computation, as opposed to NAND
which is a nonuniform model, where we have to specify a different
program for every input length.
This notion of self replication, and the related notion of self ref-
erence is crucial to many aspects of computation, as well of course
to life itself, whether in the form of digital or biological programs.
6.4 Example
justentered := o
iter := z
}
i := iter
left := x_i
i := (cur - iter) - o
right := x_i
if(NOT(left == right)) {
loop := z
y_0 := z
}
halflength := cur / two
if(NOT(iter < halflength)) {
y_0 := o
loop := z
}
iter := iter + o
}
will be
simloop := 3
totalvars := NumberVariables(x)
maxlines := Length(x) / 6
currenti := 0
currentround := 0
increasing := 1
pc := 0
while (true) {
136 introduction to theoretical computer science
line := 0
foo := x_{6*line + 0}
fooidx := x_{6*line + 1}
bar := x_{6*line + 2}
baridx := x_{6*line + 3}
baz := x_{6*line + 4}
bazidx := x_{6*line + 5}
if (fooidx == maxlines) {
fooidx := currenti
}
... // similar for baridx, bazidx
if line==maxlines {
if not avars[simloop] {
break
}
pc := pc+1
if (increasing) {
i := i + 1
} else
{
i := i - 1
}
if i>r {
increasing := 0
r := r+1
}
if i==0 {
increasing := 1
}
}
// keep track in loop above of largest m that y_{m-1} was assigned a value
// add code to move vars[0*totalvars+1]...vars[(m-1)*totalvars+1] to y_0..y_{m-1}
}
6.7 Exercises
6.10 Acknowledgements
7
Equivalent models of computation
3
TODO: update gure to {0, . . . , k 1}.
3
2. Let (s , , D ) = M (s, )
3. Modify T [i ] to equal
5. Set s s
Let n be the rst index larger than 0 such that T [i ] 6 {0, 1}. We
dene the output of the process to be T [1], . . . , T [n 1]. The
number of steps that the Turing Machine M takes on input x is
the number of times that the while loop above is executed. (If the
142 introduction to theoretical computer science
process never stops then we say that the machine did not halt on
x.)
head--
}
if EQUAL(dir,'R') {
head++
}
state' := state
}
If we examine the proof of Theorem 7.2 then we can see that the
equivalence between NAND++ programs and NAND programs is
up to polynomial overhead in the number of steps. That is, for every
NAND++ program P, there is a Turing machine M and a constant
c such that for every x {0, 1} , if on input x, P halts within T
steps and outputs y, then on the same input x, M halts within c T c
steps with the same output y. Similarly, for every Turing machine
M, there is a NAND++ program P and a constant d such that for
every x {0, 1} , if on input x, M halts within T steps and outputs y,
then on the same input x, P outputs within d T d steps with the same 4
TODO: check if the overhead is really
output y.4 what I say it is.
We will not show all the details but it is not hard to show that the
word RAM model is equivalent to NAND programs. Every NAND
program can be easily simulated by a RAM machine as long as w is
larger than the logarithm of its running time. In the other direction,
a NAND program can simulate a RAM machine, using its variables
as the registers. The only signicant difference between NAND and
the word-RAM model is that in NAND, since we have a constant
number of variables, we can think of our memory as an array where
in each location there are only t = O(1) bits stored (one bit for each
distinct unindexed variable identier used in the program). Thus we
will need a factor of O(w) multiplicative overheard to simulate the
word-RAM model with an array storing w-length words.
square( x ) = x x (7.1)
we write it as
x.x x (7.2)
x.e (7.3)
simply as
Indeed, note that NOT0 will be the function that takes x, y and
outputs y, and similarly NOT1 will be the function that takes y, x and
outputs 0.
OR = f , g. f g f (7.6)
0 |x| = 0
q ( x0 , . . . , x n ) = (7.9)
x0 p( x1 , . . . , xn )otherwise
150 introduction to theoretical computer science
In fact, its not hard to see that satisfying Eq. (7.8) is equivalent to
satisfying Eq. (7.13), and hence par is the unique function that satises
the condition Eq. (7.8). This means that to nd a function par com-
puting parity, all we need is a magical function SOLVE that given
a function PAREQ nds xed point of PAREQ: a function p such
that PAREQ( p) = p. Given such a magical function, we could give
a non-recursive denition for par by writing par = SOLVE( PAREQ).
Proof. Indeed, for every expression F of the form t.e, we can see
that
and then we can dene par as YPAREQ since this will be the
unique solution to p = PAREQp.
To evaluate this, the next step would be to apply the second term 11
This assumes we use the call by
on the third term,11 which would result in value evaluation ordering which states
that to evaluate a expression f g we
rst evaluate the righthand expression
g and then invoke f on it. The Call by
(x.xxx )(x.xxx )(x.xxx )(x.xxx ) (7.17) name or lazy evaluation ordering
would rst evaluate the lefthand
We can see that continuing in this way we get longer and longer expression f and then invoke it on g. In
this case both strategies would result
expressions, and this process never concludes. in an innite loop. There are examples
though when call by name would
not enter an innite loop while call
by value would. The SML and OCaml
7.5 Other models programming languages use call by
value while Haskell uses (a close
variant of) call by name.
There is a great variety of models that are computationally equiva-
lent to Turing machines (and hence to NAND++/NAND program).
Chapter 8 of the book The Nature of Computation is wonderful re-
source for some of those models. We briey mention a few examples.
i.e., code is law, or to use the words the DAO described itself: The
DAO is borne from immutable, unstoppable, and irrefutable com-
puter code. Unfortunately, it turns out that (as well see in the next
lecture) understanding the behavior of Turing-complete computer
programs is quite a hard thing to do. A hacker (or perhaps, some
would say, a savvy investor) was able to fashion an input that would
cause the DAO code to essentially enter into an innite recursive loop
in which it continuously transferred funds into their account, thereby
cleaning out about 60 million dollars out of the DAO. While this
transaction was legal in the sense that it complied with the code of
the smart contract, it was obviously not what the humans who wrote
this code had in mind. There was a lot of debate in the Ethereum
community how to handle this, including some partially successful
Robin Hood attempts to use the same loophole to drain the DAO
funds into a secure account. Eventually it turned out that the code is
mutable, stoppable, and refutable after all, and the Ethereum commu-
nity decided to do a hard fork (also known as a bailout) to revert
history to before this transaction. Some elements of the community
strongly opposed this decision, and so an alternative currency called
Ethereum Classic was created that preserved the original history.
7.10 Exercises
13
TODO: Add an exercise showing that
13 NAND++ programs where the integers
are represented using the unary basis
are equivalent up to polylog terms with
7.5. Exercise (lambda calculus requires three variables). Prove that multi-tape Turing machines.
for every -expression e with no free variables there is an equivalent 14
Hint: You can reduce the number of
-expression f using only the variables x, y, z.14 variables a function takes by pairing
them up. That is, dene a expression
PAIR such that for every x, y PAIRxy is
some function f such that f 0 = x and
7.11 Bibliographical notes f 1 = y. Then use PAIR to iteratively
reduce the number of variables used.
15
TODO: Recommend Chapter 7 in the
15 nature of computation
equivalent models of computation 157
7.13 Acknowledgements
8
Is every function computable?
The proof of Theorem 8.1 is short but subtle, and it crucially uses
the dual view of a program as both instructions for computation, as
well as a string that can be an input for this computation. I suggest
that you pause here and go back to read it again and think about
it - this is a proof that is worth reading at least twice if not three or
four times. It is not often the case that a few lines of mathematical
reasoning establish a deeply profound fact - that there are problems
we simply cannot solve and the rm conviction that Hilbert al-
luded to above is simply false. The type of argument used to prove
Theorem 8.1 is known as diagonalization since it can be described
as dening a function based on the diagonal entries of a table as in
Fig. 8.1.
Theorem 8.1 shows that there is some function that cannot be com-
puted. But is this function the equivalent of the tree that falls in the
forest with no one hearing it? That is, perhaps it is a function that
no one actually wants to compute.
1. Compute z = P ( x, x )
2. If z = 0 then output 1.
Note that the claim immediately implies that our assumption that
P computes H ALT contradicts Theorem 8.1, where we proved that
the function F is uncomputable. Hence the claim is sufcient to
prove the theorem.
Many peoples rst instinct when they see the proof of Theorem 8.2
is to not believe it. That is, most people do believe the mathematical
statement, but intuitively it doesnt seem that the Halting problem
is really that hard. After all, being uncomputable only means that
H ALT cannot be computed by a NAND++ program. But program-
mers seem to solve H ALT all the time by informally or formally
arguing that their programs halt. While it does occasionally happen
that a program unexpectedly enters an innite loop, is there really
no way to solve the halting problem? Some people argue that they
can, if they think hard enough, determine whether any concrete pro-
gram that they are given will halt or not. Some have even argued
that humans in general have the ability to do that, and hence humans
have inherently superior intelligence to computers or anything else 2
This argument has also been con-
nected to the issues of consciousness
modeled by NAND++ programs (aka Turing machines).2
and free will. I am not completely sure
of its relevance but perhaps the reason-
The best answer we have so far is that there truly is no way to ing is that humans have the ability to
solve H ALT, whether using Macs, PCs, quantum computers, humans, solve the halting problem but they exer-
cise their free will and consciousness by
or any other combination of mechanical and biological devices.
choosing not to do so.
Indeed this assertion is the content of the Church-Turing Thesis. This
of course does not mean that for every possible program P, it is hard
to decide if P enter an innite loop. Some programs dont even have
loops at all (and hence trivially halt), and there are many other far
is every function computable? 163
def isprime(p):
return all(p % i for i in range(2,p-1))
def Goldbach(n):
return any( (isprime(p) and isprime(n-p))
for p in range(2,n-1))
n = 4
while True:
if not Goldbach(n): break
n+= 2
8.1.2 Reductions
At the end of the day this is just like any other proof by contradic-
tion, but the fact that it involves hypothetical algorithms that dont
really exist tends to make it quite confusing. The one silver lining
is that at the end of the day the notion of reductions is mathemat-
ically quite simple, and so its not that bad even if you have to go
back to rst principles every time you need to remember what is the
direction that a reduction should go in. (If this discussion itself is
confusing, feel free to ignore it; it might become clearer after you see
an example of a reduction such as the proof of Theorem 8.5.)
The proof of Theorem 8.3 is below, but before reading it you might
want to pause for a couple of minutes and think how you would
prove it yourself. This is an excellent way to get some initial comfort
with the notion of proofs by reduction.
Theorem 8.5 can be generalized far beyond the parity function and
in fact it rules out verifying any type of semantic specication on
programs. Dene a semantic specification on programs to be some
property that does not depend on the code of the program but just
on the function that the program computes. More formally, for a
subset S of the functions from {0, 1} to {0, 1} , dene the function
COMPUTES-S : {0, 1} {0, 1} as follows: if P {0, 1} is a
description of a NAND++ program that computes some F S then
COMPUTES-S( P) = 1 and otherwise COMPUTES-S( P) = 0. The
following theorem shows that COMPUTES-S is either trivial or
non-computable:
is every function computable? 167
capture a set of functions useful for certain application but (b) weak
enough that we can still solve semantic specication problems on
them. Here are some examples:
TO BE COMPLETED
We know that there are innitely many natural numbers, and that
there are also innitely many even natural numbers. There seem to
be more natural numbers than natural even numbers, but Cantor
said that in fact the size of these two sets is the same. The reason is
that there is a one-to-one map from the natural numbers N to the
set EVEN of even natural numbers, namely the map f ( x ) = 2x.
Similarly, while we may think that there set N2 of pairs of natural
numbers is larger than the set of natural numbers, it turns out that
we can consider them as having the same size as well, since there is
a one-to-one map PAIR : N2 N (there are many ways to dene
such a map including PAIR( x, y) = 2x 3y ; weve use such a map in
embedding two-dimensional arrays in one-dimensional arrays).
Unlike the nite case, there are actually functions that are ihere-
nently uncomputable in the sense that they cannot be computed by
any NAND++ program.
8.6 Exercises
8.9 Acknowledgements
9
Is every theorem provable?
lois showed that no such formula exists, along the way giving birth to
group theory.
But there are some equations that we simply do not know how
to solve by any means. For example, it took more than 200 years
until people succeeded in proving that the equation a11 + b11 = c11 1
This is a special case of whats known
has no solution in integers.1 The notorious difculty of so called as Fermats Last Theorem which
Diophantine equations (i.e., nding integer roots of a polynomial) states that an + bn = cn has no solution
in integers for n > 2. This was conjec-
motivated the mathematician David Hilbert in 1900 to include the tured in 1637 by Pierre de Fermat but
question of nding a general procedure for solving such equations only proven by Andrew Wiles in 1991.
in his famous list of twenty-three open problems for mathematics of The case n = 11 (along with all other so
called regular prime exponents) was
the 20th century. I dont think Hilbert doubted that such a procedure established by Kummer in 1850.
exists. After all, the whole history of mathematics up to this point
involved the discovery of ever more powerful methods, and even
impossibility results such as the inability to trisect an angle with
a straightedge and compass, or the non-existence of an algebraic
formula for qunitic equations, merely pointed out to the need to use
more general methods.
Alas, this turned out not to be the case for Diophantine equations:
in 1970, Yuri Matiyasevich, building on a decades long line of work
by Martin Davis, Hilary Putnam and Julia Robinson, showed that
there is simply no method to solve such equations in general:
Denition 9.2 is interesting in its own right and not just as a toy
version of Theorem 9.1. We often care deeply about determining the
truth of quantied integer statements. For example, the statement
that Fermats Last Theorem is true for n = 3 can be phrased as the
quantied integer statement
aN bN cN a a a + b b b = c c c . (9.2)
The twin prime hypothesis, that states that there is an innite num-
ber of numbers p such that both p and p + 2 are primes can be
176 introduction to theoretical computer science
In this section we will prove Theorem 9.3. The proof will, as usual,
go by reduction from the Halting problem, but we will do so in two
steps:
For example, the true statement that for every string a there is a
string b that correspond to a in reverse order can be phrased as the
following quantied mixed statement
We will rst prove Theorem 9.5 and then use it to prove Theorem 9.3.
The proof is again by reduction to H ALT (see Fig. 9.1). That is, we
do so by giving a program that transforms any NAND++ program
P and input x into a quantied mixed statement P,x such that P,x
178 introduction to theoretical computer science
is true if and only if P halts on input x. This sill complete the proof,
since it will imply that if QMS is computable then so is the H ALT
problem, which we have already shown is uncomputable.
The idea behind the construction of the statement P,x is the fol-
lowing. The statement will be true if and only if there exists a string
L {0, 1} which corresponds to an execution trace that proves that
P halts on input x. At a high level, the crucial insight is that unlike
when we actually run the computation, to verify the correctness of a
execution trace we only need to verify local consistency between pairs
of lines.
before t in which baz was written to. Note that these statements
will themselves use I NDEX because if bar and/or baz are indexed
by i then part of the condition for PREV1 (t, s) and PREV2 (t, r ) will
be to ensure that I NDEX (t) = I NDEX (s) and/or I NDEX (t) =
I NDEX (r ).
We now show how to prove Theorem 9.3 using Theorem 9.5. The
idea is again a proof by reduction. We will show a transformation of
every quantier mixed statement into a quantied integer statement
that does not use string-valued variables such that is true if and
only if is true.
n = |x|
And what are these . . . vanishing increments? They are neither finite quanti-
ties, nor quantities infinitely small, nor yet nothing. May we not call them the
ghosts of departed quantities?, George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, 1734.
This also implies that for any nite axiomatic system S, there are
interesting statements X (namely of the form F ( x ) = 0 for an
uncomputable function F) such that S is not able to prove either X
or its negation.
9.5 Exercises
9.8 Acknowledgements
For practical purposes, the difference between algebraic and exponential order
is often more crucial than the difference between finite and non-finite., Jack
Edmunds, Paths, Trees, and Flowers, 1963
Sad to say, but it will be many more years, if ever before we really un-
derstand the Mystical Power of Twoness. . . 2-SAT is easy, 3-SAT is hard,
2-dimensional matching is easy, 3-dimensional matching is hard. Why? oh,
Why? Eugene Lawler
The shortest path problem is the task of, given a graph G = (V, E) and
two vertices s, t V, to nd the length of the shortest path between
s and t. That is, we want to nd the smallest number k such that
there are vertices v0 , v1 , . . . , vk with v0 = s, vk = t and for every
i {0, . . . , k 1} an edge between vi and vi+1 . If each vertex has
at least two neighbors then there can be an exponential number of
paths from s to t, but fortunately we do not have to enumerate them
all to nd the shortest path. We can do so by performing a breadth
first search (BFS), enumerating ss neighbors, and then neighbors
neighbors, etc.. in order. If we maintain the neighbors in a list we can
190 introduction to theoretical computer science
max Fs ( x ) Ft ( x )s.t.
x R m
(10.1)
u6{s,t} Fu ( x ) = 0
One of the most useful problems that people have been solving time
and again is solving n linear equations in n variables. That is, solve
equations of the form
where { ai,j }i,j[n] and {bi }i[n] are real (or rational) numbers. More
compactly, we can write this as the equations Ax = b where A is an
n n matrix, and we think of x, b are column vectors in R n .
Suppose that the equations involve also quadratic terms of the form
ai,j,k x j xk . That is, suppose that we are given a set of quadratic poly-
nomials p1 , . . . , pm and consider the equations { pi ( x ) = 0}. To avoid
issues with bit representations, we will always assume that the equa-
tions contain the constraints { xi2 xi = 0}i[n] and hence the solutions
can be assumed to lie in {0, 1}n . This is a very well motivated prob-
lem which in particular generalizes the classical quadratic assignment
problem. Once again, we do not know a much better algorithm for
this problem than the one that enumerates over all the 2n possiblities.
n 1
sign( ) Ai, (i) (10.4)
Sn i =0
A zero sum game is a game between two players where the payoff for
one is the same as the penalty for the other. That is, whatever the rst
player gains, the second player loses. As much as we want to avoid
them, zero sum games do arise in life, and the one good thing about
them is that at least we can compute the optimal strategy.
efficient computation 197
Fortunately, not all real-world games are zero sum, and we do have
more general games, where the payoff of one player is not necessarily
the loss of the other. John Nash won the Nobel prize for showing that
there is a notion of equilibrium for such games as well. In many eco-
nomic texts it is taken as an article of faith that when actual agents
are involved in such a game then they reach a Nash equilibrium.
However, unlike zero sum games, we do not know of an efcient
algorithm for nding a Nash equilibrium given the description of a
general (non zero sum) game. In particular this means that, despite
economists intuitions, there are games for which natural stategies
will take exponential number of steps to converge to an equilibrium.
algorithm runs out of steam very very fast, and as Edmonds says,
in practice there might not be much difference between a problem
where the best algorithm is exponential and a problem that is not
solvable at all. Thus the efcient algorithms we mention above are
widely used and power many computer science applications. More-
over, a polynomial-time algorithm often arises out of signicant
insight to the problem at hand, whether it is the max-ow min-
cut result, the solvability of the determinant, or the group theoretic
structure that enables primality testing. Such insight can be useful
regardless of its computational implications.
10.4 Exercises
Prove that for every regular expression exp, the function corre-
sponding to exp is computable in polynomial time. Can you show
that it is computable in O(n) time?
10.7 Acknowledgements
11
Modeling running time
* T (n) n
* T (n) T (n ) whenever n n
All the functions mentioned above are nice per Denition 11.2,
and from now on we will only care about the class TI ME( T (n)) or
TI ME( T (n)) when T is a nice function.
2
As above, this notation is non stan-
The two main time complexity classes we will be interested in are dard. Many texts dene FP for the
the following: class of non-Boolean functions that are
computable in polynomial time, and P
Polynomial time: We say that a total Boolean function is com- for the class of Boolean partial functions
that are computable in polynomial time.
putable in polynomial time if it is in the class P = cN TI ME(nc ). Thus such texts might use the notation
Similarly, we dene P = cN TI ME(nc ).2 BP for the class P.
modeling running time 203
P EXP
Shortest path Longest Path
Min cut Max cut
2SAT 3SAT
Linear eqs Quad. eqs
Zerosum Nash
Determinant Permanent
Primality Factoring
A table of the examples from the previous lecture. All these prob-
lems are in EXP but the only the ones on the left column are cur-
rently known to be in P (i.e., have a polynomial-time algorithm).
Proof. We only sketch the proof as it follows very closely the sim-
ulation of NAND programs by NAND++ programs that we have
already seen. First note that we that we can simulate all the index
operations using only the operations of incrementing and decrement-
ing a single index i with polynomial overhead. The reason is that
these operations are enough to copy an index to another array, and
all the operations of adding, multiplying, shifting etc.. can be carried
out in polynomial time. Now we need to simulate a program that
only decrements or incremenets its index variable i (perhaps based
on the value of another boolean variable) with a NAND++ program
where the index variable travels using the path described in Fig. 11.1.
In the NAND++ program if we want to, for example, increment the
variable while we are in a decrementing phase, then well have to
wait until the round is nished. The worst case is if we always have
to wait a whole round in which case to simulate T steps we will need
something like 2 + 4 + + 2T = O( T 2 ) steps.
TI MEDEVAL( P, x, 1T ) = P( x ) (11.1)
Proof. Once again we only sketch the proof. The denition of execut-
ing a NAND program is given in Appendix A. It involves maintain-
ing variables pc and i for the program counter and index variable,
as well as an index for the current line that is being executed. If a
program involves L different variable identiers, we can store all the
variables in a single array vars such that if foo is the -th identier
then the value of foo_h ji will be stored in vars_h Lj + i. Evaluating
every line can be done in about O( L) operators which is a constant
independent of the input length.
We have seen that there are uncomputable functions, but are there
functions that can be computed, but only at an exorbitant cost? For
example, is there a function that can be computed in time 2n , but can
not be computed in time 20.9n ? It turns out that the answer is Yes:
Proof. Recall the Halting function H ALT : {0, 1} {0, 1} that was
dened as follows: H ALT ( P, x ) equals 1 for every program P and
input x s.t. P halts on input x, and is equal to 0 otherwise. We cannot
use the Halting function of course, as it is uncomputable and hence
not in TI ME( T (n)) for any function T . However, we will use the
following variant of it:
Note that the EVAL function, that takes as input a NAND pro-
gram P and an input x, and outputs P( x ), can be computed by a
NAND++ program in O(| P|) time. Hence if F has the property that
it is computable by a sequence { Pn } of programs of T (n) size, then
there is a in fact an O( T (n)) time NAND++ program P that can can
compute F if it is only given for every n the program Pn as advice.
For this reason, nonuniform computation is sometimes known as com-
putation with advice. The class SIZE( poly(n)) is sometimes denoted as
P/poly , where the /poly stands for giving the polynomial time algo-
rithm a polynomial amount of advice - some string of information
that depends only on the input length but not on the particular input.
We have mentioned the Church-Turing thesis, that posits that the def-
inition of computable functions using NAND++ programs captures
the denition that would be obtained by all physically realizable com-
puting devices. The extended Church Turing is the statement that the
same holds for efficiently computable functions, which is typically in-
terpreted as saying that NAND++ programs can simulate every phys-
ically realizable computing device with polynomial overhead. Like
the Church-Turing thesis itself, the extended Church-Turing thesis is
in the asymptotic setting and does not directly yield an experimen-
tally testable prediction. However, it can be instantiated with more
concrete bounds on the overhead, which would yield predictions
such as the Physical Extended Church-Turing Thesis we mentioned
before, that are experimentally testable. As we mentioned, quantum
computing poses a serious challenge to the extended Church-Turing
thesis. However, it still seems that the extended Church-Turing thesis
is fundamentally correct, in the sense that, while we do need to adapt
it to account for the possibility of quantum computing, its broad
outline remains unchanged. In particular, out of all the example
problems mentioned in the previous lecture, as far as we know, the
complexity of only one integer factoring is affected by modifying
our model to include quantum computers as well.
modeling running time 211
The time hierarchy theorem shows that there are some problems
that can be solved in exponential, but not in polynomial time.
However, we do not know if that is the case for the natural exam-
ples that we described in this lecture.
11.8 Exercises
11.11 Acknowledgements
12
NP and NP completeness
In this paper we give theorems that suggest, but do not imply, that these
problems, as well as many others, will remain intractable perpetually,
Richard Karp, 1972
At the moment the best known algorithms are not much better
than the trivial one in the worst-case.
12.1 Reductions
F ( x ) = G ( R( x )) . (12.1)
We will now use reductions to show that the problems above- 3SAT,
Quadratic Equations, Maximum Cut, and Longest Path- are indeed
computationally equivalent to one another. We start by reducing
3SAT to the latter three problems, demonstrating that solving either
of them will solve it 3SAT.
Let us now see our rst example of a reduction. We will show how to
reduce 3SAT to the problem of Quadratic Equations.
The idea is that for every two variables xi and x j , we add an extra
variables yi,j and zi,j and a set of quadratic equations that, if satised,
guarantee that yi,j = xi x j . Once we do that, we can replace cubic
terms of the form xi x j xk with the quadratic term yi,j xk in the new
variables. We can do so by adding the following equations
xi yi,j yi,j = 0
x j yi,j yi,j = 0 (12.3)
yi,j + 1 xi x j zi,j = 0
The two reductions above might not have seemed so surprising, since
quadratic equations and max cut are at least somewhat similar to
3SAT in the sense that they are constraint satisfaction problems, which
are about trying to nd an assignment x {0, 1}n (or equivalently a
set S [n]) that satises as many local constraints (such as quadratic
equations or cutting edges) as possible. But we will now show that
3SAT reduces the the longest path problem as well, which seems to be
of a different nature.
12.6.1 Examples:
We will see the proof of Theorem 12.6 in the next lecture, but
note that it immediately implies that QU ADEQ, LONGPATH,
and MAXCUT all reduce to 3SAT. In fact, combining it with the
reductions weve seen, it implies that all these problems are equiv-
alent!. To reduce QU ADEQ to LONGPATH, we can rst reduce
QU ADEQ to 3SAT using Theorem 12.6 and use the reduction weve
seen from 3SAT to LONGPATH. There is of course nothing special
about QU ADEQ here- by combining Theorem 12.6 with the reduc-
tion we saw, we see that just like 3SAT, every F NP reduces to
LONGPATH, and the same is true for QU ADEQ and MAXCUT. All
these problems are in some sense the hardest in NP in the sense
that an efcient algorithm for one of them would imply an efcient
algorithm for all the problems in NP. This motivates the following
denition
Theorem 12.6 and the reductions weve seen in this lecture show
that despite their supercial differences, 3SAT, quadratic equations,
longest path and maximum cut, are all NP complete. Thousands
more problems have been shown to be NP complete, arising from all
science, mathematics, economics, engineering and many other elds.
If (as is widely believed to be the case) there is no polynomial-time
(or even 2o(n) time) algorithm for 3SAT, then all of these problems
cannot be computed by an efcient algorithm.
12.7 Complexocartography
12.10 Exercises
5
TODO: Maybe mention either in
5 exercise or in body of the lecture some
NP hard results motivated by science.
12.8. Exercise. Prove Lemma 12.3 For example, shortest superstring that
is motivated by genome sequencing,
12.9. Exercise (Transitivity of reductions). Prove that if F p G and protein folding, maybe others.
G p H then F p H.
12.13 Acknowledgements
13
The Cook-Levin Theorem
For every x {0, 1}n , if P halts on input x within fewer than T steps
and outputs some string y {0, 1}m , then Q P ( x ) = y.
Finally, if i0 is the last line in which the output variable y_0 was
assigned, then we add the constraint zi0 = N AND (zm+n , zm+n+1 ),
which (since we constrained zm+n+1 = 1 zm+n ) is equivalent to
constraining zi0 = 1.
is the same as
zi z j z k z j z k zi (13.2)
( zi z j z k ) ( zi z j ) ( zi z k ) (13.4)
13.8 Acknowledgements
14
Advanced hardness reductions (advanced lecture)
14.2 Exercises
14.5 Acknowledgements
15
What if P equals NP?
First, let us get one qualm out of the way. Sometimes people say,
What if P = NP but the best algorithm
for 3SAT takes n100 time? Well,
n100 is much larger than, say, 2 n for any input shorter than 1060
bits which is way way larger than the worlds total storage capacity
(estimated at a mere 1021 bits or about 200 exabytes at the time
of this writing). So qualitatively, this question can be thought of as
what if the complexity of 3SAT is exponential for all inputs that we
will ever encounter, but then grows much smaller than that? To me
this sounds like the computer science equivalent of asking what if
the laws of physics change completely once they are out of the range
of our telescopes?. Sure, this is a valid possibility, but wondering
about it does not sound like the most productive use of our time.
So, as the saying goes, well keep an open mind, but not so open
that our brains fall out, and assume from now on that:
and
A priori, having a fast algorithm for 3SAT might not seem so impres-
sive. Sure, it will allow us to decide the satisability of not just 3CNF
formulas but also quadratic equations, as well as nd out whether
there is a long path in a graph, and solve many other decision prob-
lems. But this is not typically what we want to do. Its not enough to
know if a formula is satisable- we want to discover the actual actual
satisfying assignment. Similarly, its not enough to nd out if a graph
has a long path- we want to actually nd the path.
x P( x ) (15.1)
or
x y z P( x, y, z) . (15.3)
P x | P | k P ( x ) = P ( x ) . (15.4)
x1 {0,1}n SP ( x1 ) =
x1 SOLVEa1 ( Px1 ) =
(15.6)
x1 x2 Qxa P( x1 , . . . , x a ) =
x1 x2 Q x a P ( x 1 , . . . , x a )
This algorithm can also solve the search problem as well: nd the
value x1 that certies the truth of Eq. (15.5). We note that while this
algorithm is polynomial time, the exponent of this polynomial blows
up quite fast. If the original NANDSAT algorithm required (n2 ) 1
a We do not know whether such loss
solving a levels of quantiers would require time (n2 ).1 is inherent. As far as we can tell, its
possible that the quantified boolean
formula problem has a linear-time
algorithm. We will however see later
15.2.1 Approximating counting problems
in this course that it satises a notion
known as PSPACE-hardness which is
Given a NAND program P, if P = NP then we can nd an input even stronger than NP-hardness.
x (if one exists) such that P( x ) = 1, but what if there is more than
one x like that? Clearly we cant efciently output all such xs: there
might be exponentially many. But we can get an arbitrarily good
what if p equals np? 235
The classical picture of the world is the top of a local mountain in the space of
ideas. And you go up to the top and it looks amazing up there and absolutely
incredible. And you learn that there is a taller mountain out there. Find it,
Mount Quantum. . . . theyre not smoothly connected . . . youve got to make a
jump to go from classical to quantum . . . This also tells you why we have such
major challenges in trying to extend our understanding of physics. We dont
have these knobs, and little wheels, and twiddles that we can turn. We have to
learn how to make these jumps. And it is a tall order. And thats why things
are difficult.
15.5 Is P = NP in practice?
One might think that impossibility results, telling you that you
can not do something, is the kind of cloud that does not have a silver
lining. But in fact, as we already alluded to before, it does. A hard
(in a sufciently strong sense) problem in NP can be used to create a
code that cannot be broken, a task that for thousands of years has been
the dream of not just spies but many scientists and mathematicians
over the generations. But the complexity viewpoint turned out to
yield much more than simple codes, achieving tasks that people have
not even dared to dream about. These include the notion of public key
cryptography, allowing two people to communicate securely without
ever having exchanged a secret key, electronic cash, allowing private
secure transaction without a central authority, and secure multiparty
computation, enabling parties to compute a joint function on private
inputs without revealing any extra information about it. Also, as we
will see, computational hardness can be used to replace the role of
randomness in many settings.
We are very far from proving this however, and we will discuss
some of the efforts in this direction later in this course.
15.8 Exercises
15.11 Acknowledgements
16
Probability Theory 101
These are all important questions that have been studied and de-
bated by scientists, mathematicians, statisticians and philosophers.
Fortunately, we will not need to deal directly with these questions
here. We will be mostly interested in the setting of tossing n random,
unbiased and independent coins. Below we dene the basic proba-
bilistic objects of events and random variables when restricted to this
setting. These can be dened for much more general probabilistic
experiments or sample spaces, and later on we will briey discuss
how this can be done, though the n-coin case is sufcient for almost
everything well need in this course.
242 introduction to theoretical computer science
E[X] = 2 n X ( x ) . (16.3)
x {0,1}b
E [ X + Y ] = E [ X ] + E [Y ] (16.4)
Proof.
E[X + Y] = 2n ( X ( x ) + Y ( x )) =
x {0,1}n
2 n X ( x ) + 2 n Y ( x ) = (16.5)
x {0,1}b x {0,1}b
E [ X ] + E [Y ]
x1 = 1, then because the second coin toss is not affected by the result
of the rst one, the events A and C are independent.
P [ x0 = 1] = 1/2
(16.6)
P [ x0 + x1 + x2 2] = P [{011, 101, 110, 111}] = 4/8 = 1/2
but
P [i I Ai ] = P [ Ai ] (16.8)
i I
|C | | A | | B | 2n k m
2n = 2k 2m 2n k m
= P [ X = a ] P [Y = b ] (16.9)
E [ X ] E [Y ]
P [ F ( X ) = a G (Y ) = b ] = P [ X = x Y = y] =
x s.t.F ( x )= a,y s.t. G (y)=b
P [ X = x ] P [Y = y ] =
x s.t.F ( x )= a,y s.t. G (y)=b
P [ X = x ] P [Y = y ] =
x s.t.F ( x )= a y s.t.G (y)=b
P [ F ( X ) = a ] P [ G (Y ) = b ]
(16.11)
P [ X0 = a 0 X n 1 = a n 1 ] = P [ X0 = a 0 ] P [ X n 1 = a n 1 ]
(16.12)
and similarly we have that
16.3 Concentration
X1 , . . . , Xn are independent,
For every random variable Xi in [0, 1], Var [ Xi ] 1 (if the variable
is always in [0, 1], it cant be more than 1 away from its expectation),
and hence Eq. (16.15) implies that Var [ X ] n and hence [ X ] n.
For large n, n 0.01n, and in particular if n 0.01n/k, we can
use Chebyshevs inequality to bound the probability that X is not in
[0.499n, 0.501n] by 1/k2 .
16.7 Exercises
n
2( H ( p))n 2( H ( p)+)n (16.17)
pn
2. Use this and Exercise 16.16 to prove the Chernoff bound for the
case that X0 , . . . , Xn are i.i.d. random variables over {0, 1} each
equaling 0 and 1 with probability 1/2.
10
TODO: add some exercise about the
10 probabilistic method
16.10 Acknowledgements
17
Probabilistic computation
in 1946 .. (I asked myself) what are the chances that a Canfield solitaire
laid out with 52 cardds will come out successfully? After spending a lot of
time trying to estimate them by pure combinatorial calculations, I wondered
whether a more practical method . . . might not be to lay it our say one
hundred times and simple observe and count, Stanislaw Ulam, 1983
The salient features of our method are that it is probabilistic . . . and with a
controllable miniscule probability of error., Michael Rabin, 1977
Now that we have reviewed the basics of probability, let us see how
we can use randomness to achieve algorithmic tasks. We start with
the following example. Recall the maximum cut problem, of nding,
given a graph G = (V, E), the cut that maximizes the number of
edges. This problem is NP-hard, which means that we do not know
of any efcient algorithm that can solve it, but randomization enables
a simple algorithm that can cut at least half of the edges:
17.1.1 Amplification
Since the earth is about 5 billion years old, we can estimate the
chance that an asteroid of the magnitude that caused the di-
nosaurs extinction will hit us this very second is about 258 . It
is quite likely that even a deterministic algorithm will fail if this
happens.
Algorithm WalkSAT:
3. Go back to step 1.
To prove the claim () note that any clause that x does not satisfy,
it differs from x by at least one literal. So when we change x by one
of the three literals in the clause, we have probability at least 1/3 of
decreasing the distance.
We now prove our earlier claim that with probability 1/2 over
x {0, 1}n , ( x, x ) n/2. Indeed, consider the map FLIP :
{0, 1}n {0, 1}n where FLIP( x0 , . . . , xn1 ) = (1 x0 , . . . , 1 xn1 ).
We leave it to the reader to verify that (1) FLIP is one to one, and (2)
( FLIP( x ), x ) = n ( x, x ). Thus, if A = { x {0, 1}n : ( x, x )
n/2} then FLIP is a one-to-one map from A to A, implying that
| A| | A| and hence P [ A] 1/2.
The above means that in any single repetition of the outer loop, we
n
will end up with a satisfying assignment with probability 12 3 .
260 introduction to theoretical computer science
n
Hence the probability that we never do so in 100 3 repetitions is at
n
most (1 1 n )100 3 (1/e)50 .
2 3
2
polynomial mapping R n to R where
!
n 1 n 1
P( x0,0 , . . . , xn1,n1 ) = sign( ) Ai,(i) xi,(i) (17.3)
Sn i =0 i =0
Then G has a perfect matching if and only if P is not identically zero. That
is, G has a perfect matching if and only if there exists some assignment
2
x = ( xi,j )i,j[n] R n such that P( x ) 6= 0.
2
As weve seen before, for every x R n , we can compute P( x )
by simply computing the determinant of the matrix A( x ) which
is obtained by replacing Ai,j with Ai,j xi,j . So, this reduces testing
perfect matching to the zero testing problem for polynomials: given
some polynomial P(), test whether P is identically zero or not. The
intuition behind our randomized algorithm for zero testing is the
following:
If a polynomial is not identically zero, then it cant have too many roots.
This makes sense as if there are only few roots, then we expect
that with high probability the random input x is not going to be
one of those roots. However, to transform into an actual algorithm,
we need to make both the intuition and the notion of a random
input precise. Choosing a random real number is quite problematic,
especially when you have only a nite number of coins at your
disposal, and so we start by reducing the task to a nite setting. We
will use the following result
17.4. Theorem (SchwartzZippel lemma). For every integer q, and
polynomial P : R m R with integer coefficients. If P has degree at
most d and is not identically zero, then it has at most dqn1 roots in the set
[q]n = {( x0 , . . . , xm1 ) : xi {0, . . . , q 1}}.
Algorithm Perfect-Matching:
17.3 Exercises
4
TODO: add exercise to give a de-
17.5. Exercise (Deterministic max cut algorithm). 4 terministic max cut algorithm that
gives m/2 edges. Talk about greedy
approach.
17.6. Exercise (Simulating distributions using coins). Our model
for probability involves tossing n coins, but sometimes algorithm
require sampling from other distributions, such as selecting a uni-
form number in {0, . . . , M 1} for some M. Fortunately, we can
simulate this with an exponentially small probability of error:
prove that for every M, if n > klog M, then there is a function
F : {0, 1}n {0, . . . , M 1} {} such that (1) The probability that
F ( x ) = is at most 2k and (2) the distribution of F ( x ) conditioned 5
Hint: Think of x {0, 1}n as choosing
on F ( x ) 6= is equal to the uniform distribution over {0, . . . , M 1}.5 k numbers y1 , . . . , yk {0, . . . , 2log M
1}. Output the rst such number that is
in {0, . . . , M 1}.
17.7. Exercise (Better walksat analysis). 1. Prove that for ev-
ery > 0, if n is large enough then for every x {0, 1}n
P x{0,1}n [( x, x ) n/3] 2(1 H (1/3))n where
H ( p) = p log(1/p) + (1 p) log(1/(1 p)) is the same
function as in Exercise 16.16.
3. Use the above to prove that for every > 0 and large enough n, if
we set T = 1000 (4/3 + )n and S = n/3 in the WalkSAT algorithm
then for every satisable 3CNF , the probability that we output
unsatisfiable is at most 1/2.
264 introduction to theoretical computer science
6
TODO: add exercise to improve the
17.8. Exercise (Faster bipartite mactching (challenge)). 6 matching algorithm by working modulo
a prime
17.6 Acknowledgements
18
Modeling randomized computation
Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is,
of course, in a state of sin., John von Neumann, 1951.
We will return to the rst question later in this course, but for
now lets just say that there are various random physical sources.
Users mouse movements, (non solid state) hard drive and network
latency, thermal noise, and radioactive decay, have all been used as
sources for randomness. For example, new Intel chips come with a
random number generator built in. At the worst case, one can even
include a coin tossing machine Fig. 18.1. We remark that while we
can represent the output of these processes as binary strings which
will be random from some distribution , this distribution is not 1
Indeed, as this paper shows, even
necessarily the same as the uniform distribution over {0, 1}n .1 As we (real-world) coin tosses do not have
will discuss later (and is covered more in depth in a cryptography exactly the distribution of a uniformly
random string.
course), one typically needs to apply a distillation or randomness
extraction process to the raw measurements to transform them to the
uniform distribution.
var := RAND
266 introduction to theoretical computer science
with at most 10m/2 times more lines (or runs in at most m/2 times more
steps) such that P [ P ( x ) = F ( x )] 1 2m .
Proof. The proof is the same as weve seen in the maximum cut
example. We can run P on input x for t = 10m/2 times, using fresh
randomness each one, to compute outputs y0 , . . . , yt1 . We output
the value y that appeared the largest number of times. Let X0 be
the random variable that is equal to 1 if yi = F ( x ) and equal to 0
otherwise. Then all the random variables X0 , . . . , Xt1 are i.i.d. and
satisfy E [ Xi ] = P [ Xi = 1] 1/2 . Hence the probability that
Xi t/2 is at most exp(2 t/4) 2m .
P [ P ( x ) = F ( x )] 1 0.9 2n . (18.1)
Note: Theorem 18.3 can also be proven using the Union Bound.
That is, once we show that the probability of an error is smaller than
2n , we can take a union bound over all xs and so show that if we
choose some random coins r and x them once and for all, then
with high probability they will work for every x {0, 1}n .
The proof of Lemma 18.4 might seem quite silly, but refers to a
very serious issue. Time and again people have learned the hard way
that one needs to be very careful about producing random bits using
deterministic means. As we will see when we discuss cryptography,
270 introduction to theoretical computer science
P [ P( G (s)) = 1] P m [ P(r ) = 1] < (18.3)
s{0,1} r {0,1}
T is the limit on the number of lines of the program P that the gen-
erator needs to fool. The larger T is, the stronger the generator.
For the rst question, let us come clean and confess we do not know
how to prove that interesting pseudorandom generators exist. By
interesting we mean pseudorandom generators that satisfy that is
some small constant (say < 1/3), m > , and the function G itself
can be computed in poly(m) time. If we drop the last condition, then
as shown in Lemma 18.6, there are pseudorandom generators where
m is exponentially larger than .
Before proving the claim, let us see why it implies the lemma.
Suppose we give some arbitrary ordering P1 , . . . , PM for the NAND
programs P of at most T lines where M is the number of such pro- 6
2 Recall that we showed this by arguing
grams, which we have seen in lecture 4 to be at most 2O(T log T ) < 2T that we can translate all variables in
(for lare enough T).6 Thus if we let Ei be the event Eq. (18.3) is vio- a T-line program to have the form
x_h ji, y_h ji or work_h ji (where j is a
lated for program Pi with respect to the random G, then by setting number between 0 and 3T) without
C large enough we can ensure that P [ Ei ] < 1/(10M) which means changing the function that the program
that by the union bound with probability 0.9, Eq. (18.3) holds for computes and hence without affecting
the event Eq. (18.3). For programs in
every program P of at most T lines. This means that G is a ( T, ) this form, every line can be described
pseudorandom generators by at most 4 log T ASCII characters
which means that the program can
be described by at most 10T log T
Hence conclude the proof of Lemma 18.6, it sufces to prove
characters or 12T log T bits, which
the claim. Choosing a random G : {0, 1} {0, 1}m amounts to means there are at most 212T log T of
choosing L = 2 random strings y0 , . . . , y L1 {0, 1}m and letting them.
L 1
1
P ( y s ) P [ P ( s ) = 1] > (18.4)
L
i =0 s{0,1}m
modeling randomized computation 273
2
is at most 2T . Eq. (18.4) follows directly from the Chernoff
bound. If we let for every i [ L] the random variable Xi denote
P(yi ), then since y0 , . . . , y L1 is chosen independently at random,
these are independently and identically distributed random variables
with mean P s{0,1}m [ P(s) = 1] and hence the probability that they
2 L/2
deviate from their expectation by is at most 2 2 .
18.6 Exercises
18.9 Acknowledgements
19
Hardnesss vs. Randomness
19.2 Exercises
19.5 Acknowledgements
20
Derandomization from worst-case assumptions (ad-
vanced lecture)
20.2 Exercises
20.5 Acknowledgements
21
Cryptography
PLAN: Talk about one-time pad, then about getting short keys from
pseudorandom generators. Brief sketch of advanced notions (leaving
all details to CS 127)
21.2 Exercises
21.5 Acknowledgements
22
Algorithms and society
22.2 Exercises
22.5 Acknowledgements
23
Compression, coding, and information
23.2 Exercises
23.5 Acknowledgements
24
Space bounded computation
24.2 Exercises
24.5 Acknowledgements
25
Streaming, sketching, and automata
25.2 Exercises
25.5 Acknowledgements
26
Proofs and algorithms
26.2 Exercises
26.5 Acknowledgements
27
Interactive proofs (advanced lecture)
27.2 Exercises
27.5 Acknowledgements
28
Data structure lower bounds
28.2 Exercises
28.5 Acknowledgements
29
Quantum computing
29.2 Exercises
29.5 Acknowledgements
30
Shors Algorithm (advanced lecture)
30.2 Exercises
30.5 Acknowledgements
List of Figures
5.1 Crab-based logic gates from the paper Robust soldier-crab ball
gate by Gunji, Nishiyama and Adamatzky. This is an example
of an AND gate that relies on the tendency of two swarms of
crabs arriving from different directions to combine to a single
swarm that continues in the average of the directions. 106
5.2 We can implement the logic of transistors using water. The water
pressure from the gate closes or opens a faucet between the
source and the sink. 107
5.3 The number of transistors per integrated circuits from 1959 till
1965 and a prediction that exponential growth will continue at
least another decade. Figure taken from Cramming More Com-
ponents onto Integrated Circuits, Gordon Moore, 1965 108
5.4 Gordon Moores cartoon predicting the implications of radi-
cally improving transistor density. 108
5.5 The exponential growth in computing power over the last 120
years. Graph by Steve Jurvetson, extending a prior graph of Ray
Kurzweil. 109
5.6 Implementing a NAND gate using transistors 109
5.7 A Boolean circuit to compute the XOR function with NAND
gates. In red are the corresponding variable names in the NAND
program/ 111
shors algorithm (advanced lecture) 301
17.1 A 1947 entry in the log book of the Harvard MARK II computer
containing an actual bug that caused a hardware malfunction. By
Courtesy of the Naval Surface Warfare Center. 256
304 introduction to theoretical computer science
where vara, varb, varc are variable identiers. If the variable iden-
tiers are indexed, the index can never be larger than the number of
308 introduction to theoretical computer science
The output is the value of the variables y_0, . . ., y_hm 1i. (If
a variable of the form y_hi i has not been assigned a value in the
program, then its value defaults to 0.)
An indexed variable identier can also have the form var_i where
var is an unindexed variable identier.
2. For every line in P of the form vara := varb NAND varc, assign
to the variable denoted by vara the NAND of the values of the
variables denoted by varb and varc. If a variable on the righthand
side has not received a value then its value is set to 0. If a variable
has the form foo_i then we treat it as if it was foo_hi i where hi i
denotes the current value of i. If a variable has the form x_h ji then
if j < | x | it gets the value x j and otherwise it gets the value 0. If a
variable has the form validx_h ji then if j < | x | it gets the value 1
and otherwise it gets the value 0. If a variable on the lefthandside
has the form y_h ji then we let m = max{m, j + 1}.
3. If the variable loop has the value 0 then halt with output
y0 , . . . , ym1 where y j equals the value of y_h ji if this variable has
been assigned a value, and equals 0 if it hasnt been assigned a
value. Otherwise (if loop has value 1) then do the following:
result = []
for line in prog.split('\n'):
if not line or line[0]=='#': continue # ignore empty and commented out lines
(var1,assign,var2,op,var3) = line.split()
result.append(var_idx(var1) + var_idx(var2) + var_idx(var3))
return (n,m,result)
main = "\n"
Cprog = '''
#include <stdbool.h>
return Cprog
(a) If the line has the form vara := varb NAND varc, assign to the
variable denoted by vara the NAND of the values of the vari-
ables denoted by varb and varc (interpreting 0 as false and
nonzero as true). If a variable on the righthand side has not
received a value then its value is set to 0.
If a variable has the form x_h ji then if j < | x | it gets the value
x j and otherwise it gets the value 0.
If the variable loop has the value 0 then halt with output
y0 , . . . , ym1 where y j equals the value of y_h ji if this variable has
been assigned a value, and equals 0 if it hasnt been assigned a
value. Otherwise (if loop has value 1) then do the following. Set
px pc + 1, set i = I NDEX ( pc) where I NDEX is the function
that maps the program counter value to the current value of i, and
go back to step 2.
Constants: We can assume that zero and one are assigned the
values 0 and 1 respectively.
316 introduction to theoretical computer science
3. if (foo) {
code
}
denotes code for a function that takes l inputs bar1,. . . ,barl and
returns k outputs foo1,. . . ,fook. We can then invoke such a function
by writing
blah1,...,blahk := Func(baz1,...,bazl)
foo := XOR(bar,baz)
or
if AND(foo,bar) {
code
}
2
appendix: the nand* programming languages 317
foo := 12
bar := 1598
baz := foo * bar
foo_0 := 124
foo_1 := 57
foo_2 := 5459
Lists: We store lists and nested lists using the separators [,],, with
the binary encoding of each element. Thus code such as
foo := [ 13 , 1, 4 ]
foo := "[1011,01,001]"
318 introduction to theoretical computer science
We can store in lists not just integers but any other object for
which we have some canonical way to encode it into bits.
foo := [17,8,24,9]
foo := [12,127,8]
bar := 8 in foo
to execute code length(bar) times where each time foo will get
the current element. 3
TODO: check if we should add map
and lter for lists
3 4
TODO: check if we should dene
dictionaries as well. If so then maybe
4 we should just say that lists are a
special case of dictionaries where the
keys are integers from 0 to n 1.
while (foo) {
code
}