**1.
Church-Turing Thesis:**
The church-turing thesis is a foundational concept in theoretical computer science. It posits that a Turing
machine or equivalent formalism can compute any effectively calculable function. This thesis forms the basis for
understanding the limits of computation, helping us identify problems that are undecidable or intractable.
**2. Universal Turing Machine:**
A universal Turing machine is a theoretical machine capable of simulating any other Turing machine. It can take
as input the description of a Turing machine and its input, and it can simulate the behavior of that machine. This
concept is crucial for understanding the Church-Turing thesis and proving undecidability results.
**3. Universal and Diagonalization Languages:**
The diagonalization language is a specific language used in the proof of undecidability. It involves constructing a
language that has a self-referential property, making it undecidable. The universal language refers to the set of
descriptions of Turing machines that accept a specific language. It is also important in undecidability proofs.
**4. Reduction between Languages and Rice's Theorem:**
A reduction between languages is a method of showing that one problem is at least as hard as another. This
concept is used in proving the intractability of many problems. Rice's theorem states that for non-trivial
properties of languages (properties that are not true for all languages or false for all languages), it is undecidable
whether a Turing machine accepts a language with that property.
**5. Undecidable Problems about Languages:**
There are various problems about languages that are proven to be undecidable, such as the Halting Problem, Post
Correspondence Problem, and the problem of determining whether two context-free grammars generate the same
language.
**6. Intractability and Notion of Tractability/Feasibility:**
Intractability refers to problems that are difficult to solve in practice. The notion of tractability or feasibility
relates to problems that can be solved efficiently. The boundary between tractable and intractable problems is a
central concern in computational complexity theory.
**7. NP and co-NP Classes:**
The NP class consists of decision problems for which a proposed solution can be verified in polynomial time.
The co-NP class is the complement of NP, containing problems for which a proposed non-solution can be
verified efficiently. Both classes are crucial in classifying problems based on their verifiability.
**8. Polynomial Time Many-One Reduction:**
Polynomial time many-one reduction is a type of reduction that is used to show that one problem is at least as
hard as another in polynomial time. It helps in defining problem complexity classes and proving NP-
completeness.
**9. Completeness under this reduction:**
A problem is considered NP-complete if it is both in NP and is NP-hard, meaning that every problem in NP can
be reduced to it in polynomial time. NP-completeness is a central concept for understanding intractability.
**10. Cook-Levin Theorem:**
The Cook-Levin theorem established the NP-completeness of the propositional satisfiability problem (SAT),
which is the first problem proven to be NP-complete. This result was a breakthrough in the theory of
computational complexity.
**11. NP-Complete Problems from Other Domains:**
Various problems from different domains are NP-complete, including graph problems (clique, vertex cover,
independent sets, Hamiltonian cycle), number problems (partition), and set cover. NP-completeness in these
domains implies that finding optimal solutions is computationally infeasible in many cases.
**1. Clique Problem:**
The Clique Problem is a graph problem. Given an undirected graph and an integer 'k,' the question is whether
there exists a clique of size 'k' in the graph. A clique is a subset of vertices in which every pair of vertices is
connected by an edge. The Clique Problem is NP-complete because it is easy to verify a proposed clique's
existence, but finding the largest clique in a graph is computationally challenging.
**2. Vertex Cover Problem:**
The Vertex Cover Problem is another graph problem. Given an undirected graph and an integer 'k,' it asks
whether there exists a set of 'k' vertices such that every edge in the graph is incident to at least one vertex in the
set. A minimum vertex cover is the smallest such set. This problem is NP-complete because verifying a proposed
vertex cover is straightforward, but finding the smallest vertex cover is computationally difficult.
**3. Independent Set Problem:**
The Independent Set Problem is yet another graph problem. Given an undirected graph and an integer 'k,' it seeks
to determine whether there exists an independent set (a set of vertices with no edges between them) of size 'k' in
the graph. Like other graph problems, it's NP-complete because verifying the independence of a proposed set is
easy, but finding the largest independent set is challenging.
**4. Hamiltonian Cycle Problem:**
The Hamiltonian Cycle Problem is a classic graph problem. Given a directed or undirected graph, it asks
whether there is a cycle that visits each vertex exactly once, called a Hamiltonian cycle. This problem is NP-
complete because verifying a proposed Hamiltonian cycle is straightforward, but finding one in a graph is
computationally complex.
**5. Number Partition Problem:**
The Number Partition Problem involves a sequence of positive integers. The goal is to partition this sequence
into two subsets such that the difference between the sums of the two subsets is minimized. This problem is NP-
complete because checking whether a proposed partition is valid can be done in polynomial time, but finding the
optimal partition is computationally challenging.
6. Set Cover Problem:
The Set Cover Problem is a combinatorial optimization problem. Given a finite set 'U' of elements and a
collection of subsets of 'U,' the question is to find the smallest number of subsets from the collection such that
their union covers all elements in 'U.' The Set Cover Problem is NP-complete because verifying whether a
proposed set of subsets forms a valid cover is straightforward, but finding the minimum cover is computationally
complex.
