There have been two polls asking theorists (and others) what they thought of P vs NP and related questions [5, 6]. Both were written by me (William Gasarch) and appeared in the Complexity Column of SIGACT News, edited by Lane A. Hemaspaandra. I have conducted a third poll. The results of that poll will appear in Lane's column in this issue (Volume 50, Number 1, March 2019). In the article I did not give my own answers [though I commented on other people's answers in square brackets]. By contrast, this column contains my answers about the status of P vs. NP. For information on what is the status of P vs NP see Scott Aaronson's article [1], Lance Fortnow's article [3], or (for the layperson) Lance Fortnow's book [4].
有两个民意调查询问理论家(和其他人)他们对P vs NP和相关问题的看法[5,6]。这两篇文章都是我(William Gasarch)写的,刊登在SIGACT News的复杂性专栏上,由Lane A. Hemaspaandra编辑。我进行了第三次民意调查。该调查的结果将出现在本期Lane的专栏中(2019年3月第50卷第1期)。在文章中,我没有给出自己的答案(尽管我在方括号中评论了其他人的答案)。相比之下,本专栏包含了我对P与NP地位的回答。关于什么是P与NP的状态的信息,请参阅Scott Aaronson的文章[1],Lance Fortnow的文章[3],或(对于外行人)Lance Fortnow的书[4]。
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Codes, cryptology and curves are widely used today for secure as well as reliable communication. This book aims to introduce these topics to students of computer science, mathematics and physics at the masters level. It also looks at the application of computer algebra for solving related problems. It consists of twelve chapters contributed by four authors and published by Cambridge University Press. The book is also available in hardback and e-book formats, the price/ISBN being US$160/9780521817110, and US$52/9781108547826, respectively.
{"title":"Review of Codes, Cryptology and Curves with Computer Algebra","authors":"S. Nagaraj","doi":"10.1145/3319627.3319631","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3319627.3319631","url":null,"abstract":"Codes, cryptology and curves are widely used today for secure as well as reliable communication. This book aims to introduce these topics to students of computer science, mathematics and physics at the masters level. It also looks at the application of computer algebra for solving related problems. It consists of twelve chapters contributed by four authors and published by Cambridge University Press. The book is also available in hardback and e-book formats, the price/ISBN being US$160/9780521817110, and US$52/9781108547826, respectively.","PeriodicalId":22106,"journal":{"name":"SIGACT News","volume":"47 1","pages":"14-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78863104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
I invite any reader who has knowledge of some area to contact me and arrange to write a column about open problems in that area. That area can be (1) broad or narrow or anywhere in between, and (2) really important or really unimportant or anywhere in between.
{"title":"Open Problems Column","authors":"W. Gasarch","doi":"10.1145/3351452.3351459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3351452.3351459","url":null,"abstract":"I invite any reader who has knowledge of some area to contact me and arrange to write a column about open problems in that area. That area can be (1) broad or narrow or anywhere in between, and (2) really important or really unimportant or anywhere in between.","PeriodicalId":22106,"journal":{"name":"SIGACT News","volume":"193 1","pages":"28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82797916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern Data Science with R (MDSR) is one of the first textbooks to provide a comprehensive introduction to data science for students at the undergraduate level (it is also suitable for graduate students and professionals in other fields). The authors follow the approach taken by Garrett Grolemund and Hadley Wickham in their book, R for Data Science7, and David Robinson in Teach the Tidyverse to Beginners, which emphasizes the teaching of data visualization and the tidyverse (using dplyr and chained pipes) before covering base R, along with using real-world data and modern data science methods. The textbook includes end of chapter exercises (an instructor's solution manual is available), and a series of lab activities is also under development. The result is an excellent textbook that provides a solid foundation in data science for students and professionals alike.
现代数据科学与R (MDSR)是第一本为本科生提供全面介绍数据科学的教科书之一(它也适用于研究生和其他领域的专业人士)。作者遵循Garrett Grolemund和Hadley Wickham在他们的书《R for Data science》和David Robinson在《Teach The Tidyverse to Beginners》中采用的方法,在介绍基础R之前,强调数据可视化和Tidyverse(使用dplyr和链式管道)的教学,同时使用真实世界的数据和现代数据科学方法。教材包括章节末尾的练习(教师的解决手册是可用的),以及一系列的实验活动也在开发中。结果是一本优秀的教科书,为学生和专业人士提供了数据科学的坚实基础。
{"title":"Review of Modern Data Science","authors":"A. M. Miller","doi":"10.1145/3300150.3300155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3300150.3300155","url":null,"abstract":"Modern Data Science with R (MDSR) is one of the first textbooks to provide a comprehensive introduction to data science for students at the undergraduate level (it is also suitable for graduate students and professionals in other fields). The authors follow the approach taken by Garrett Grolemund and Hadley Wickham in their book, R for Data Science7, and David Robinson in Teach the Tidyverse to Beginners, which emphasizes the teaching of data visualization and the tidyverse (using dplyr and chained pipes) before covering base R, along with using real-world data and modern data science methods.\u0000 The textbook includes end of chapter exercises (an instructor's solution manual is available), and a series of lab activities is also under development. The result is an excellent textbook that provides a solid foundation in data science for students and professionals alike.","PeriodicalId":22106,"journal":{"name":"SIGACT News","volume":"60 1","pages":"13-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84961094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fine-grained complexity studies problems that are "hard" in the following sense. Consider a computational problem for which existing techniques easily give an algorithm running in a(n) time for inputs of size n, for some a. The algorithm is often brute-force, and despite decades of research, no O(a(n)1-∈) time algorithm for constant " > 0 has been developed. There are many diverse examples of such problems. Here are two: CNF-SAT on n variables and m clauses can be solved via exhaustive search in O(2nmn) time, and no 2(1-∈)npoly(m; n) time algorithm for constant " > 0 is known. The Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) problem on strings of length n has a classical O(n2) time algorithm, and no O(n-∈) time algorithm for " > 0 is known. Let's call these running times the "textbook running times". (Note that this is not well-defined but for many fundamental problems such as SAT or LCS, it is natural. The textbook runtime is the runtime of the algorithm a bright student in an algorithms class would come up with.)
{"title":"Some Open Problems in Fine-Grained Complexity","authors":"V. V. Williams","doi":"10.1145/3300150.3300158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3300150.3300158","url":null,"abstract":"Fine-grained complexity studies problems that are \"hard\" in the following sense. Consider a computational problem for which existing techniques easily give an algorithm running in a(n) time for inputs of size n, for some a. The algorithm is often brute-force, and despite decades of research, no O(a(n)1-∈) time algorithm for constant \" > 0 has been developed.\u0000 There are many diverse examples of such problems. Here are two: CNF-SAT on n variables and m clauses can be solved via exhaustive search in O(2nmn) time, and no 2(1-∈)npoly(m; n) time algorithm for constant \" > 0 is known. The Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) problem on strings of length n has a classical O(n2) time algorithm, and no O(n-∈) time algorithm for \" > 0 is known. Let's call these running times the \"textbook running times\". (Note that this is not well-defined but for many fundamental problems such as SAT or LCS, it is natural. The textbook runtime is the runtime of the algorithm a bright student in an algorithms class would come up with.)","PeriodicalId":22106,"journal":{"name":"SIGACT News","volume":"41 1","pages":"29-35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72848252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this column we look at four books, ranging from the theoretical to the applied, in these three reviews:
在本专栏中,我们将在以下三篇评论中回顾从理论到应用的四本书:
{"title":"The Book Review Column","authors":"Frederic Green","doi":"10.1145/3300150.3300152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3300150.3300152","url":null,"abstract":"In this column we look at four books, ranging from the theoretical to the applied, in these three reviews:","PeriodicalId":22106,"journal":{"name":"SIGACT News","volume":"16 1","pages":"4-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74032831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The 32nd International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2018 was held in New Orleans, USA, from October 15-19, 2018. The conference took place at the Hampton Inn & Suites New Orleans-Convention Center and was organized by Costas Busch of Louisiana State University. The conference included two workshops and three days of main conference this year.
{"title":"DISC 2018 Review","authors":"Aditya Biradavolu, Saptaparni Kumar","doi":"10.1145/3300150.3300168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3300150.3300168","url":null,"abstract":"The 32nd International Symposium on Distributed Computing, DISC 2018 was held in New Orleans, USA, from October 15-19, 2018. The conference took place at the Hampton Inn & Suites New Orleans-Convention Center and was organized by Costas Busch of Louisiana State University. The conference included two workshops and three days of main conference this year.","PeriodicalId":22106,"journal":{"name":"SIGACT News","volume":"143 1","pages":"89-95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90407887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As with prior December issues, this issue is devoted to a review of notable events related to distributed computing that occurred during the year. First, congratulations to Bowen Alpern and Fred Schneider, winners of the 2018 Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing for their paper De ning Liveness"! Their paper appeared in Information Processing Letters in October 1985. The prize is jointly sponsored by ACM and EATCS, and is given alternately at PODC1 and DISC2; this year it was given at PODC. This paper formally de ned liveness properties of concurrent and distributed algorithms for the rst time and also proved that every trace property is the conjunction of a safety property and a liveness property. The full citation can be found at http://www.podc.org/dijkstra/2018-dijkstra-prize/. I am delighted to include in this column the text of the remarks that Fred and Bowen gave at PODC when the award was presented to them.
与12月份的前几期一样,这一期致力于回顾这一年中发生的与分布式计算相关的重大事件。首先,祝贺Bowen Alpern和Fred Schneider,他们的论文“De ning live”获得了2018年Edsger W. Dijkstra分布式计算奖!他们的论文发表在1985年10月的《信息处理快报》上。该奖项由ACM和EATCS联合主办,在PODC1和DISC2上轮流颁发;今年是PODC。本文首次形式化地定义了并发和分布式算法的活动性质,并证明了每一个跟踪性质都是一个安全性质和一个活动性质的结合。完整的引用可以在http://www.podc.org/dijkstra/2018-dijkstra-prize/上找到。我很高兴在本专栏中附上弗雷德和鲍恩在PODC颁奖时发表的评论。
{"title":"Distributed Computing Column 72: Annual Review 2018","authors":"J. Welch","doi":"10.1145/3300150.3300163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3300150.3300163","url":null,"abstract":"As with prior December issues, this issue is devoted to a review of notable events related to distributed computing that occurred during the year.\u0000 First, congratulations to Bowen Alpern and Fred Schneider, winners of the 2018 Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing for their paper De ning Liveness\"! Their paper appeared in Information Processing Letters in October 1985. The prize is jointly sponsored by ACM and EATCS, and is given alternately at PODC1 and DISC2; this year it was given at PODC. This paper formally de ned liveness properties of concurrent and distributed algorithms for the rst time and also proved that every trace property is the conjunction of a safety property and a liveness property. The full citation can be found at http://www.podc.org/dijkstra/2018-dijkstra-prize/. I am delighted to include in this column the text of the remarks that Fred and Bowen gave at PODC when the award was presented to them.","PeriodicalId":22106,"journal":{"name":"SIGACT News","volume":"48 10 1","pages":"58-59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90175763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Game Theory, Alive is a wonderful book and is to be highly recommended, either for teaching or self-study. By way of comparison, it covers fewer topics and is less advanced than the well known book Game Theory, by M. Maschler, E. Solan, and S. Zamir. For this reason, it seems ideal for a first course on Game Theory at the undergraduate level. Since Game Theory, Alive assumes some basic knowledge of probability theory (in addition to discrete math), students should have some probability theory as a background, though much of the book is still very accessible without it. This reviewer would not be surprised if Game Theory, Alive becomes the standard text for an introductory course on Game Theory. It is very well written and fun to read. The numerous figures, cartoons (see, e.g., Figure 6 on page xxi), photos, anecdotes, and especially, the historical summaries at the end of each chapter as well as the backgrounds of the mathematicians, statisticians, and economists whose results now go into Game Theory, is one of the loveliest features of this book. Wikipedia notwithstanding, we often don't learn enough about the 'players' themselves, their history and/or the evolution of how a result came into being (at least in this reviewer's primary field of study, which is not game theory or even probability theory), and this book very nicely bucks that trend. The most important caveat I should state here is that I am not myself in game theory or combinatorics, so my review of this book cannot be as deep as that of a practitioner in either of these fields. That is unfortunate, but the plus side of this is that I can make the following comment: to me, the most beautiful feature of this book is how nicely-and yet how compactly-the authors convey intuition and motivation, which is the most important thing a textbook can do for someone approaching the field for the first time. And to do so while at the same time presenting everything mathematically-definitions, theorems, proofs-is not easy.
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Welcome to the Technical Reports Column. If your institution publishes technical reports that you'd like to have included here, please contact me at the email address above.
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