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Tutorial 3 Solutions

This document contains solutions to recursion problems involving recursion trees, substitution methods, lower order terms, and change of variables approaches. The problems cover solving recurrences using these different techniques and determining tight asymptotic bounds.

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36 views3 pages

Tutorial 3 Solutions

This document contains solutions to recursion problems involving recursion trees, substitution methods, lower order terms, and change of variables approaches. The problems cover solving recurrences using these different techniques and determining tight asymptotic bounds.

Uploaded by

Sara
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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[CSN212] Study Group 3

Recursions
Solutions

1 Recursion tree method and substitution method


n
Solve the recursion T (n) = 2T (n/2) + log n .

1. Use the recursion tree method to solve it.


2. Use the substitution method to verify your answer.
n 2.n/2 n 4.n/4
Solution. First level: log n , Second level log(n/2) = log n−1 ,
Third level log(n/4) = log nn−2 , last level n1 .
Plog n 1 Pk
Summing up the levels of the recursion tree produces n i=1 n = Θ(n log log n) because i=1 n1 = log k.
Substitution method: T (n) = O(n log log n). The induction assumption is T (n/2) ≤ c(n/2) log log(n/2).
Substituting to the recurrence:
n
T (n) ≤ cn log log(n/2) +
log n
Now we need to show that there is a constant c such that for all n sufficiently large we have:
n
cn log log(n/2) + ≤ cn log log n
log n
Solving for c:
1
c≥
(log log n − log log(n/2)) log n
It turns out that the denominator approaches log(e) as n approaches infinity, where e is Napier’s constant
2.718... (all logarithms in this solution are assumed to be in base 2). To see why, let’s first rewrite the
denominator into a more manageable form:
log n
log(n)(log log n − log log(n/2)) = log(n) log( )
log n − 1
Substitute log n = x:
x 1 x 1 x−1 1
= x log( ) = log((1 + ) ) = log((1 + ) (1 + ))
x−1 x−1 x−1 x−1
Using the fact that limx→∞ (1 + 1/x)x = e we get that our experssion approaches:
1 1
log(e(1 + )) = log e + log(1 + ) → log e
x−1 x−1
Therefore, selecting any c larger than 1/ log e gives T (n) = O(n log log n). Similarly, any c smaller than
1/ log e gives T (n) = Ω(n log log n). Therefore T (n) = Θ(n log log n).
2 Substitution method with floor funtion
The substitution method for solving T (n) = 2T (n/2) + n is restricted to n being a power of two.
Extend the proof to all values of n using the recurrence T (n) = 2T (⌊n/2⌋) + n.
1. Prove first that T (n) = O(n log n).
2. Then prove that T (n) = Ω(n log n) thus showing that T (n) = Θ(n log n).

Solution. For the upper bound, we guess T (n) ≤ cn log n and make the induction assumption

T (⌊n/2⌋) ≤ c⌊n/2⌋ log⌊n/2⌋ ≤ c(n/2) log(n/2)

The rest of the proof is as in the lecture notes.


For the lower bound, we guess T (n) ≥ cn log n when n ≥ 2 and make the induction assumption using the
hint:
n−1 n n−1
T (⌊n/2⌋) ≥ c⌊n/2⌋ log⌊n/2⌋ ≥ c log = c (log n − 2)
2 4 2
Then we check:

T (n) = 2T (⌊n/2⌋) + n ≥ c(n − 1)(log n − 2) + n = cn log n + (1 − 2c)n − c log n + 2c ≥ cn log n

when 1 − 2c ≥ c, so we choose c = 1/3. The base case: T (2) = 2T (1) + 2 = 4 ≥ (1/3)2 log 2.

3 Master method.
Use the master method to give tight asymptotic bounds for the following recurrences.
1. T (n) = T (n/2) + Θ(1)
2. T (n) = 2T (n/2) + n log n
3. T (n) = 3T (n/2) + n2/3

4. T (n) = 2T (n/4) + n7/3


Solution.
1. a = 1, b = 2, α = log2 1 = 0, f (n) = 1 = nα . Thus the middle case applies and T (n) = Θ(n0 log n) =
Θ(log n).

2. a = 2, b = 2, α = log2 2 = 1, f (n) = n log n. None of the cases applies and the recurrence cannot be
solved using the Master method.
3. a = 3, b = 2, α = log2 3 ≈ 1.585, f (n) = n2/3 . Then f (n) = O(nα−ϵ ) for ϵ = 0.1 and the first case
applies: T (n) = Θ(nα ) = Θ(nlog2 3 ).

4. a = 2, b = 4, α = log4 2 = 1/2, f (n) = n7/3 . Then f (n) = Ω(nα+ϵ ) for ϵ = 0.1 and the third case
applies if the regularity condition is satisfied:

af (n/b) = 2(n/4)7/3 = 21−14/3 n7/3 ≤ cn7/3 = cf (n)

when c ≥ 21−14/3 . Thus T (n) = Θ(n7/3 ).


4 Substitution method, lower order term correction.
Solve the recurrence T (n) = 4T (n/2) + n using the substitution method.
1. Start with the guess T (n) = cn2 . What goes wrong?
2. Try to modify the guess to correct the problem.
Solution. Guess: T (n) = cn2 . Induction assumption: T (n/2) = c(n/2)2 = (c/4)n2 . Check:

T (n) = 4(c/4)n2 + n = cn2 + n ̸≤ cn2 .

The problem is the lower order term +n.


A possible correction is to subtract the lower order term from the guess. The new guess is T (n) = cn2 −dn.
Induction assumption: T (n/2) = (c/4)n2 − (d/2)n. Check:

T (n) = 4 (c/4)n2 − (d/2)n + n = cn2 + (1 − 2d)n = cn2 − dn




when d = 1. To satisfy the base case, we choose c = 2: T (1) = c − d = 1.

5 Change of Variables approach


√
Solve the recurrence T (n) = 2T ( n) + log n. Your solution should be asymptotically tight. Do not worry
about whether values are integral. For the base case, assume T (n) = 0 for n ≤ 2.
√
Hint. Define S(x) = T (2x ). Then express T ( n) as a function of S() to obtain a recurrence for S(x). Solve
that using e.g. Master method. Replace back to get a bound for T (n).

Solution. We can define x = log n, which implies n = 2x . Replacing this into the definition of T we obtain:
√
T (n) = 2T ( n) + log n
T (2x ) = 2T (2x/2 ) + x
S(x) = 2S(x/2) + x

The solution to this recurrence is S(x) = Θ(x log x), therefore T (n) = Θ(log n log log n).

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