The Theory of NP-Completeness

Tractable and intractable problems

NP-complete problems

The theory of NP-completeness

Tractable and intractable problems
NP-complete problems

NP 2

Classifying problems
Classify problems as tractable or intractable.
Problem is tractable if there exists at least one
polynomial bound algorithm that solves it.
An algorithm is polynomial bound if its worst case
growth rate can be bound by a polynomial p(n) in the
size n of the problem

p (n) an n k ... a1n a0 where k is a constant

NP 3

Intractable problems
Problem is intractable if it is not tractable.
All algorithms that solve the problem are not
polynomial bound.
It has a worst case growth rate f(n) which cannot be
bound by a polynomial p(n) in the size n of the
problem.
For intractable problems the bounds are:

f ( n) c n , or n log n , etc.
NP 4

Why is this classification useful?

If problem is intractable, no point in trying to find an
efficient algorithm
All algorithms will be too slow for large inputs.

NP 5

Intractable problems
Turing showed some problems are so hard that no
algorithm can solve them (undecidable)
Other researchers showed some decidable problems
from automata, mathematical logic, etc. are intractable:
Halting Problem
Presburger Arithmetic

and
Presburger Arith.
are in here

No problem is known
for certain to be in
here
NP
P

NP 6

Hard practical problems

There are many practical problems for which no one
has yet found a polynomial bound algorithm.
Examples: traveling salesperson, 0/1 knapsack,
graph coloring, bin packing etc.
Most design automation problems such as testing
and routing.
Many networks, database and graph problems.

NP 7

How are they solved?

A variety of algorithms based on backtracking, branch
and bound, dynamic programming, etc.
None can be shown to be polynomial bound

NP 8

The theory of NP completeness

The theory of NP-completeness enables showing that
these problems are at least as hard as NP-complete
problems
Practical implication of knowing problem is NPcomplete is that it is probably intractable ( whether it
is or not has not been proved yet)
So any algorithm that solves it will probably be very
slow for large inputs
NP 9

We will need to discuss

Decision problems
Converting optimization problems into decision
problems
The relationship between an optimization problem
and its decision version
The class P
Verification algorithms
The class NP
The concept of polynomial transformations
The class of NP-complete problems

NP 10

Decision Problems
A decision problem answers yes or no for a given
input
Examples:
Given a graph G Is there a path from s to t of
length at most k?
Does graph G contain a Hamiltonian cycle?
Given a graph G is it bipartite?

NP 11

A decision problem: HAMILTONIAN-CYCLE

A Hamiltonian cycle of a graph G is a cycle that
includes each vertex of the graph exactly once.
Problem: Given a graph G, does G have a
Hamiltonian cycle?

NP 12

Converting to decision problems

Optimization problems can be converted to decision
problems (typically) by adding a bound B on the
value to optimize, and asking the question:
Is there a solution whose value is at most B? (for a
minimization problem)
Is there a solution whose value is at least B? (for a
maximization problem)

NP 13

An optimization problem: traveling salesman

Given:
A finite set C={c1,...,cm} of cities,
A distance function d(ci, cj) of nonnegative
numbers.
Find the length of the minimum distance tour which
includes every city exactly once

NP 14

A decision problem for traveling salesman (TS)

Given a finite set C={c1,...,cm} of cities, a distance
function d(ci, cj) of nonnegative numbers and a
bound B
Is there a tour of all the cities (in which each city is
visited exactly once) with total length at most B?

There is no known polynomial bound algorithm for

TS.

NP 15

The relation between

If we have a solution to the optimization problem we
can compare the solution to the bound and answer
yes or no.
Therefore if the optimization problem is tractable so is
the decision problem
If the decision problem is hard the optimization
problems are also hard
If the optimization was easy then the decision
problem is easy.
NP 16

The class P
P is the class of decision problems that are
polynomial bounded
Is the following problem in P?
Given a weighted graph G, is there a spanning
tree of weight at most B?
The decision versions of problems such as shortest
distance, and minimum spanning tree belong to P

NP 17

The goal of verification algorithms

The goal of a verification algorithm is to verify a yes
answer to a decision problems input (i.e., if the
answer is yes the verification algorithm verify this
answer)
The inputs to the verification algorithm are:
the original input (problem instance) and
a certificate (possible solution)

NP 18

Verification Algorithms
A verification algorithm, takes a problem instance x
and answers yes, if there exists a certificate y such
that the answer for x with certificate y is yes
Consider HAMILTONIAN-CYCLE
A problem instance x lists the vertices and edges of
G: ({1,2,3,4}, {(3,2), (2,4), (3,4), (4,1), (1, 3)})
There exists a certificate y = (3, 2, 4, 1, 3) for which
the verification algorithm answers yes
4
1
3

2
NP 19

Polynomial bound verification algorithms

Given a decision problem d.
A verification algorithm for d is polynomial bound
if given an input x to d,
there exists a certificate y, such that |y|=O(|x|c) where
c is a constant,
and a polynomial bound algorithm A(x, y) that verifies
an answer yes for d with input x
Note: |y| is the size of the certificate, |x| is the size of
the input
NP 20

The problem PATH

PATH denotes the decision problem version of
shortest path.
PATH: Given a graph G, a start vertex u, and an end
vertex v. Does there exist a path in G, from u to v of
length at most k?
The instance is: G=({A, B, C, D}, {(A, C,2), (A, D, 15),
(C,D, 3), (D, B, 1)} k=6
A certificate y=(A, C, D, B)
B
A
15 1
2
D
C 3
NP 21

A verification algorithm for PATH

Verification algorithm:
Given the problem instance x and a certificate y
Check that y is indeed a path from u to v.
Verify that the length of y is at most k
Is the verification algorithm for PATH polynomial
bound?
Is the size of y polynomial in the size of x?
Is the verification algorithm polynomial bound?

NP 22

Example: A verification algorithm for TS

Given a problem instance x for TS and a certificate y
Check that y is indeed a cycle that includes every
vertex exactly once
Verify that the length of the cycle is at most B
Is the size of y polynomial in the size of x?
Is the verification algorithm polynomial?

NP 23

The class NP
NP is the class of decision problems for which there
is a polynomial bounded verification algorithm
It can be shown that:
all decision problems in P, and
decision problems such as traveling salesman,
knapsack, bin pack, are also in NP

NP 24

The relation between P and NP

P NP
If a problem is solvable in polynomial time, a
polynomial time verification algorithm can easily be
designed that ignores the certificate and answers
yes for all inputs with the answer yes.

NP 25

The relation between P and NP

It is not known whether P = NP.
Problems in P can be solved quickly
Problems in NP can be verified quickly.
It is easier to verify a solution than to solve a
problem.
Some researchers believe that P and NP are not the
same class.
NP 26

Polynomial reductions
Motivation: The definition of NP-completeness uses
the notion of polynomial reductions of one problem
to another problem written as

Let tran be a function that converts any input x for

decision problem A into input tran(x) for decision
problem

NP 27

Polynomial reductions
tran is a polynomial reduction from to if:
1. tran can be computed in polynomial bounded time
2. The answer to for input x is yes if and only if the
answer to for input tran(x) is yes.
x

tran

tran(x)

Algorithm
for B

yes or no

Algorithm for A
NP 28

Two simple problems

: Given n Boolean variables with values x 1,,xn, does at least
one variable have the value True?
: Given n integers i1,,in is max{i1,,in}>0?
Algorithm for B :
Check the integers one after the other.
If one is positive stop and answer yes,
otherwise (if none is positive) stop and answer no.
Example:
n=4.
Given integers: -1, 0, 3, and 20.
Algorithm for B answers yes.
Given integers: -1, 0, 0, and 0.
Algorithm for B answers no.

NP 29

Is there a transformation?
Can we transform an instance of into an instance of
Yes.
tran(x)
for ( j =1; j =< n; j ++)

if (xj == true)
ij=1
else // xj=false
ij = 0
T(false, false, true, false)= 0,0,1,0
Is this transformation polynomial bounded? yes

NP 30

Does it satisfy all the requirements

Can we show that when the answer for an instance x1,
,xn of is yes the answer for the transformed
instance tran(x1,,xn)= i1,,in of is also yes?
If the answer for the given instance x1,,xn of is
yes, there is some xj=true.
The transformation assigns ij=1.
Therefore the answer for problem B is also yes (the
maximum is positive)
NP 31

The other direction

Can we also show that when the answer for problem B
with input tran(x1,,xn)= i1,,in is yes, the answer for
the instance x1,,xn of is also yes?
If the answer for problem B is yes, it means that there
is an ij>0 in the transformed instance.
ij is either 0 or 1 in the transformed instance. So i j=1,
and therefore xj=true.
So the answer for A is also yes

NP 32

Polynomial reductions
Theorem:
If and is in P, then is in P
If A is not in P then B is also not in P

NP 33

NP-complete problems
A problem is NP-complete if
1. It is in NP and
2. For every other problem A in NP,
A problem is NP-hard if
For every other problem A in NP,

NP 34

Examples of NP-Complete problems

Cooks theorem
Satisfiability is NP-complete
This was the first problem shown to be NP-complete
Other problems
the decision version of knapsack,
the decision version of traveling salesman

NP 35

Coping with NP- Complete Problems

To solve use approximations, heuristics, etc.
Sometimes we need to solve only a restricted version
of the problem.
If restricted problem tractable design an algorithm for
restricted problem

NP 36

NP-complete problems: Theorem

If any NP-complete problem is in P,
then P = NP.

If any NP-complete problem is not

polynomial bound, then
all NP-Complete problems
are not polynomial bound.

NP P

P = NP
NP-complete
NP-complete
P
The trival decision problem
that always answers
yes in here

Some Problem
is definitely in
here

NP 37

NP-completeness and Reducibility

The existence of NP-complete problems is leads us
suspect that P NP.
If HAMILTONIAN CYCLE could be solved in
polynomial time, every problem in NP can be solved in
polynomial time.
If HAMILTONIAN CYCLE could not be solved in
polynomial time, every NP-complete problem can not
be solved in polynomial time.

NP 38

The Satisfiability problem

First, Conjunctive Normal Form (CNF) will be defined
Then, the Satisfiability problem will be defined
Finally, we will show a polynomial bounded
verification algorithm for the problem

NP 39

Conjunctive Normal Form (CNF)

A logical (Boolean) variable is a variable that may be
assigned the value true or false (p, q, r and s are
Boolean variables)
A literal is a logical variable or the negation of a
logical variable (p and q are literals)
A clause is a disjunction of literals
( (pqs) and (q r) are clauses)

NP 40

Conjunctive Normal Form (CNF)

A logical (Boolean) expression is in Conjunctive
Normal Form if it is a conjunction of clauses.
The following expression is in conjunctive normal
form:
(pqs) (q r) (p r) (r s) (psq)

NP 41

The Satisfiability problem

Is there a truth assignment to the n variables of a
logical expression in Conjunctive Normal Form which
makes the value of the expression true?
For the answer to be yes, all clauses must evaluate
to true
Otherwise the answer is no

NP 42

The Satisfiability problem

p=T, q=F, r=T and s=T is a truth assignment for:
(pqs) (q r) (p r) (r s) (psq)
Note that if q=F then q=T
Each clause evaluates to true

NP 43

A verification algorithm for Satisfiability

1. Check that the certificate s is a string of exactly n characters
which are T or F.
2. while (there are unchecked clauses) {

select next clause

if (clause evaluates to false) return( no) }
3. return (yes)

Is verification algorithm polynomial bound?

Satisfiability is in NP since there exists a polynomial
bound verification algorithm for it
NP 44