NP Hard and NP Complete Problems Basic Concepts

NP hard and NP Complete problems
Basic Concepts
1
NP –HARD AND NP – COMPLETE PROBLEMS
Basic Concepts
Basic Concepts
Decision Problems
To keep things simple, we will mainly concern ourselves with
decision problems. These problems only require a single bit output:
``yes'' and ``no''.
How would you solve the following decision problems?
-Is this directed graph acyclic?

-Is there a spanning tree of this undirected graph with total
weight less than w?
Basic Concepts
• The computing times of algorithms fall into

two groups.
• Group1– consists of problems whose solutions

are bounded by the polynomial of small degree.
Example – Binary search o(log n) ,

sorting O(n log n),
matrix multiplication 0(n 2.81).
4
Basic Concepts
• Group2 – contains problems whose best known algorithms are

non polynomial.
• Example –Traveling salesperson problem 0(n22n), knapsack

problem 0(2n/2) etc.
• There are two classes of non polynomial time problems

1) NP- hard
2) NP-complete
• A problem which is NP complete will have the property that it

can be solved in polynomial time iff all other NP – complete
problems can also be solved in polynomial time.
5
Basic Concepts
The class NP (meaning non-deterministic polynomial time) is the

set of problems that might appear in a puzzle magazine: ``Nice
puzzle.''
What makes these problems special is that they might be hard to

solve, but a short answer can always be printed in the back, and it
is easy to see that the answer is
correct once you see it.
Basic Concepts
• Another way of thinking of NP is it is the set of problems that

can solved efficiently by a really good guesser.
• The guesser essentially picks the accepting certificate out of the

air (Non-deterministic Polynomial time). It can then convince
itself that it is correct using a polynomial
time algorithm. (Like a right-brain, left-brain sort of thing.)
• Clearly this isn't a practically useful characterization: how

could we build such a machine?
Basic Concepts
NP-hardness
As we will see, some problems are at least as hard to solve as any

problem in NP. We call such problems NP-hard.
How might we argue that problem X is at least as hard (to within

a polynomial factor) as problem Y?
If X is at least as hard as Y, how would we expect an algorithm

that is able to solve X to behave?
Basic Concepts
• If an NP-hard problem can be solved in polynomial

time, then all NP-complete problems can be solved
in polynomial time.
• All NP-complete problems are NP-hard, but all NP-

hard problems are not NP-complete.
• The class of NP-hard problems is very rich in the

sense that it contain many problems from a wide
variety of disciplines.
10
• P: the class of problems which can be solved by a
deterministic polynomial algorithm.
• NP : the class of decision problem which can be solved by a

non-deterministic polynomial algorithm.
• NP-hard: the class of problems to which every NP problem

reduces.
• NP-complete (NPC): the class of problems which are NP-

hard and belong to NP.
8- 11
NP-Completeness
• How would you define NP-Complete?
• They are the “hardest” problems in NP
NP-Complete
P
NP
DETERMINISTIC and NONDETERMINISTIC ALGORITHMS
• Algorithms with the property that the result of every

operation is uniquely defined are termed
deterministic.
• Such algorithms agree with the way programs are

executed on a computer.
• In a theoretical framework, we can allow algorithms to

contain operations whose outcome is not uniquely
defined but is limited to a specified set of possibilities.
12
DETERMINISTIC and NON-DETERMINISTIC ALGORITHMS
• The machine executing such operations are allowed to

choose any one of these outcomes subject to a
termination condition.
• This leads to the concept of non deterministic algorithms.
• To specify such algorithms in SPARKS, we introduce three

statements
i) choice (s) ……… arbitrarily chooses one of
the elements of the set S.
ii) failure …. Signals an unsuccessful
completion.
iii) Success : Signals a successful
DETERMINISTIC and NON-DETERMINISTIC ALGORITHMS
• Whenever there is a set of choices that leads to a successful

completion then one such set of choices is always made and the
algorithm terminates.
• A nondeterministic algorithm terminates unsuccessfully if

and only if there exists no set of choices leading to a successful
signal.
• A machine capable of executing a non deterministic algorithm is

called a non deterministic machine.
• While non-deterministic machines do not exist in practice they

will provide strong intuitive reason to conclude that certain
problems cannot be solved by fast deterministic algorithms.
Nondeterministic algorithms
• A nondeterminstic algorithm consists of
phase 1: guessing
phase 2: checking
• If the checking stage of a nondeterministic algorithm

is of polynomial time-complexity, then this algorithm is
called an NP (nondeterministic polynomial) algorithm.
• NP problems : (must be decision problems)
searching, MST sorting
satisfiability problem (SAT)
traveling salesperson problem (TSP)
Example of a non deterministic algorithm
Deterministic and Nondeterministic algorithms
• Many optimization problems can be recast into decision problems
with the property that the decision problem can be solved in
polynomial time iff the corresponding optimization problem can .
EXAMPLE : [0/1 knapsack] :
• The decision is to determine if there is a 0/1 assignment of values to
• It is easy to obtain polynomial time non deterministic algorithms for

many problems that can be deterministically solved by a systematic
search of a solution space of exponential size.
P, NP, NP-Hard, NP- Complete
SATISFIABILITY
• Let x1,x2,x3….xn denotes Boolean variables.
_
• Let xi denotes the negation of xi.
• A literal is either a variable or its negation.
• A formula in the prepositional calculus is an expression that

can be constructed using literals and the operators and ‘Ʌ’
or ‘V’
• A clause is a formula with at least one positive literal.
• The satisfiability problem is to determine if a formula is

true for some assignment of truth values to the variables
SATISFIABILITY
• It is easy to obtain a polynomial time non determination

algorithm that terminates successfully if and only if a given
prepositional formula E(x1,x2……xn) is satiable.
• Such an algorithm could proceed by simply choosing (non-

deterministically) one of the 2n possible assignments of
truth values to (x1,x2…xn) and verify that E(x1,x2…xn) is true
for that assignment.
20
The satisfiability problem

The Satisfiability problem
- The logical formula:
(X1 V X2 V X3 ) Ʌ V X2 V X3 )Ʌ(X1 V X3 )
Clauses C1 ɅC2 Ʌ C3
conjunctive normal form (CNF)
• If there is at least one assignment which satisfies a

formula, then we say that this formula is satisfiable;
otherwise, it is unsatisfiable.
NP-HARD GRAPH AND SCHEDULING PROBLEMS
NP-HARD GRAPH AND SCHEDULING PROBLEMS
Order of transformations for various hard problems
23
NP-HARD GRAPH PROBLEMS
Clique Decision Problem(CDP)
• a clique is a complete sub-graph of the given graph.
• Complete sub-graph means, all the vertices of this sub-graph is connected to all other
vertices of this sub-graph.
• The Max-Clique problem is the computational problem of finding maximum clique of the
graph.
1. CNF Satisfiability ≤ρ Clique

is NP- Hard
2. Solution of Clique is verifiable in
polynomial time then it is NP problem.
If (1) and (2) are possible for any

problem we can say that the problem is
NP-Complete.
Clique Decision Problem(CDP) Clauses C1 ɅC2 Ʌ C3
1. CNF Satisfiability ≤ρ Clique conjunctive normal form (CNF)
is NP- Hard
is NP- Hard
Consider F= (X1 V X2 V X3 ) Ʌ ( V V )
Graph G=(V,E) , V={ < X1, 1 > ,< X2, 1 >, < X3, 1 >,< ,2>,< ,2>,< ,2>}
is NP- Hard
Consider F= (X1 V X2 V X3 ) Ʌ ( V V )
Graph G=(V,E) , V={ < X1, 1 > ,< X2, 1 >, < X3, 1 >,< ,2>,< ,2>,< ,2>}
G has a clique of size k=2

Hence CDP is NP Hard. Proved (1)
Solution of CDP can be verified in
polynomial time. Proved (2) CDP is NP Complete
Node Cover Decision Problem
NP-HARD GRAPH
Node Cover Decision Problem
NP-HARD SCHEDULING PROBLEMS
Scheduling identical processors

• Let Pi 1≤i≤m be identical processors or machines Pi.
• Let Ji 1≤i≤n be n jobs.
• Jobs Ji requires ti processing time.
• A schedule S is an assignment of jobs to processors.
• For each job Ji ,S specifies the time intervals and the
processor(s) on which this job is to be processed.
• A job cannot be processed by more than one
processor at any given time
• Let fi be the time at which the processing of job Ji is
completed.
• Schedule S is a nonpreemptive schedule if and only if each

job Ji is processed continuously from start to finish on the
same processor
• In a preemptive schedule each job need not be processed
continuously to completion on one Processor.
Obtaining minimum weighted mean finish time and
minimum finish time nonpreemptive schedules is NP-hard.
NP-HARD CODE GENERATION PROBLEMS
• Compiler
• The translation clearly depends on the particular assembly
language (and hence machine)being used.
• Let us consider a very simple machine model .We call this model
machine A. This machine has only one register called the
accumulator.
• All arithmetic operators like +, -, *, and / has to be
performed in this register.
• Always in an expression the left hand operand should be in
the accumulator.
• For the machine ‘A’ the relevant assembly language
instructions are :
Consider the expression (a+b)/(c+d)
A translation of an expression E
into the machine or assembly
language of a given machine is
optimal if and only if it has a
minimum number of
instructions
(a+b)/(c*d)
• Can we Evaluate E without any STORES?

• What is the minimum number of registers needed to evaluate
E without any STORES?
This Problem is NP Hard

Code Generation with Common Subexpressions
When arithmetic expressions have common subexpressions they can be represented by a

directed acyclic graph (dag).
Internal Nodes are
operators A shared node is a node with
more than one parent
A leaf dag is a dag in

which all shared nodes
are leaves
A leaf is a node with out-

A level-one node is a degree zero.
node both of whose A level-one dag is a
children are leaves. dag in which all
shared nodes are
level-one nodes.
The minimum number of registers needed to evaluate this dag without any STOREs is two.
Generating optimal code without or with minimum number of stores is NP-hard.

The dag A consists of

three kinds of nodes:
leaf nodes chain nodes
and tree nodes.
All chain and tree nodes
are internal nodes
representing
commutative operators
(for example,+)
If ‘d’ is the
out degree
of a node,
then
number
nodes in the
chain will be
equal to Chain Nodes
d+1.
v1,v2,…vd+1
v1 tail node of the

chain
vd+1 head node of
the chain,
contains to leaf
nodes vL , vR
root
Tree Nodes
Leaf Nodes
n-1 tree
nodes
r4 value
should be
stored in
memory . So
that r3 can
LOAD it.
R1
R1 R2
R3 R1 R2
R4 R2
R5 R4 R2
R6 R4 R2
R7
R2
R7
R2 R8
R7
R9
R2
R7
R10
R2
t2 value
should be
stored in
memory . So
that s1 can
LOAD it.
R7
R10
R2 R11
R7
R10
R12
R2
R13
R7
R2
R13
R7
R1
4
R15 R13
R7
R1
4
R16 R13
R7
R1
4
R17
R13
R7
R1
4
R13
R7 R18
R19 R13
t2 value
should be
stored in
memory . So
that s1 can
LOAD it.
t2 value
should be
stored in
memory . So
R19 R13 that s1 can
LOAD it.
Generating optimal code for a parallel assignment statement

is NP-hard,
- however if the expressions are restricted to be simple

variables, then optimal code can be generated in
polynomial time.

NP Hard and NP Complete Problems Basic Concepts

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

NP Hard and NP Complete Problems Basic Concepts

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

NP hard and NP Complete problems

How would you solve the following decision problems?

-Is this directed graph acyclic?

• The computing times of algorithms fall into

• Group1– consists of problems whose solutions

Example – Binary search o(log n) ,

• Group2 – contains problems whose best known algorithms are

• Example –Traveling salesperson problem 0(n22n), knapsack

• There are two classes of non polynomial time problems

• A problem which is NP complete will have the property that it

The class NP (meaning non-deterministic polynomial time) is the

What makes these problems special is that they might be hard to

• Another way of thinking of NP is it is the set of problems that

• The guesser essentially picks the accepting certificate out of the

• Clearly this isn't a practically useful characterization: how

As we will see, some problems are at least as hard to solve as any

How might we argue that problem X is at least as hard (to within

If X is at least as hard as Y, how would we expect an algorithm

• If an NP-hard problem can be solved in polynomial

• All NP-complete problems are NP-hard, but all NP-

• The class of NP-hard problems is very rich in the

• NP : the class of decision problem which can be solved by a

• NP-hard: the class of problems to which every NP problem

• NP-complete (NPC): the class of problems which are NP-

• Algorithms with the property that the result of every

• Such algorithms agree with the way programs are

• In a theoretical framework, we can allow algorithms to

• The machine executing such operations are allowed to

• This leads to the concept of non deterministic algorithms.

• To specify such algorithms in SPARKS, we introduce three

• Whenever there is a set of choices that leads to a successful

• A nondeterministic algorithm terminates unsuccessfully if

• A machine capable of executing a non deterministic algorithm is

• While non-deterministic machines do not exist in practice they

• If the checking stage of a nondeterministic algorithm

• It is easy to obtain polynomial time non deterministic algorithms for

• A literal is either a variable or its negation.

• A formula in the prepositional calculus is an expression that

• The satisfiability problem is to determine if a formula is

• It is easy to obtain a polynomial time non determination

• Such an algorithm could proceed by simply choosing (non-

• If there is at least one assignment which satisfies a

1. CNF Satisfiability ≤ρ Clique

If (1) and (2) are possible for any

G has a clique of size k=2

Scheduling identical processors

• Schedule S is a nonpreemptive schedule if and only if each

• Can we Evaluate E without any STORES?

This Problem is NP Hard

When arithmetic expressions have common subexpressions they can be represented by a

A leaf dag is a dag in

A leaf is a node with out-

Generating optimal code without or with minimum number of stores is NP-hard.

The dag A consists of

v1 tail node of the

Generating optimal code for a parallel assignment statement

- however if the expressions are restricted to be simple

You might also like