Complexity Theory - Material

Oded Goldreich


The strive for efficiency is ancient and universal, as time and other resources are always in shortage. Thus, the question of which tasks can be performed efficiently is central to the human experience. A key step towards the systematic study of the aforementioned question is a rigorous definition of the notion of a task and of procedures for solving tasks. These definitions were provided by computability theory, which emerged in the 1930's. This theory focuses on computational tasks, and considers automated procedures (i.e., computing devices and algorithms) that may solve such tasks. In focusing attention on computational tasks and algorithms, computability theory has set the stage for the study of the computational resources (like time) that are required by such algorithms. When this study focuses on the resources that are necessary for any algorithm that solves a particular task (or class of tasks), the study becomes part of the theory of Computational Complexity (also known as Complexity Theory).

Complexity Theory is a central field of the theoretical foundations of Computer Science. It is concerned with the study of the intrinsic complexity of computational tasks. That is, a typical Complexity theoretic study looks at a task (or a class of tasks) and at the computational resources required to solve this task, rather than at a specific algorithm or algorithmic scheme. Actually, research in Complexity Theory tends to start with the computational resources themselves, and addresses the effect of limiting these resources on the class of tasks that can be solved. Thus, Computational Complexity is the study of the what can be achieved within limited time (and/or other limited natural computational resources).

The (half-century) history of Complexity Theory has witnessed two main research efforts (or directions). The first direction is aimed towards actually establishing concrete lower bounds on the complexity of problems, via an analysis of the evolution of the process of computation. Thus, in a sense, the heart of this direction is a ``low-level'' analysis of computation. Most research in circuit complexity and in proof complexity falls within this category. In contrast, a second research effort is aimed at exploring the connections among computational problems and notions, without being able to provide absolute statements regarding the individual problems or notions. This effort may be viewed as a ``high-level'' study of computation. The theory of NP-completeness as well as the studies of approximation, probabilistic proof systems, pseudorandomness and cryptography all fall within this category.

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