NP-Hardness

Exkurs / Basic Toolbox

Let A ⊆ Σ∗ and B ⊆ Γ∗ be languages.

A≤p B (A is polynomial reducible to B)
: ⇔ ∃f : Σ ∗ → Γ ∗ : ∀w ∈ Σ ∗ : w ∈ A ⇔ f (w) ∈ B
with f computable in polynomial time.
A ≤p B, B ∈ NP ⇒ A ∈ NP
A ≤p B, B ∈ P ⇒ A ∈ P
A is NP-hard :⇔ ∀L ∈ NP : L ≤p A
A is NP-complete :⇔ A NP-hard and A ∈ NP
proofs to show B is NP-hard:
take NP-hard problem A, show A ≤p B
⇒ ∀L ∈ NP : L ≤p A ≤p B

52 Christian Schulz: Algorithm Engineering

 NP-Hard Problems

SAT
p
3SAT
COLORING
SET COVER CLIQUE SUBSET SUM SIMPLE MAX CUT
VERTEX COVER PARTITION
BALANCED PARTITION
STEINER TREEBIN PACKING ILP
KNAPSACK

53 Christian Schulz: Algorithm Engineering