This monograph presents an approach to complexity theory which offers a means of analysing algorithms in terms of their tractability. This will be suitable for graduate students and researchers in computer science and mathematics, particularly those studying complexity theory.

Autorentext

Professor Rodney Downey and Associate Professor Alexander Melnikov both are affiliated with the School of Mathematics and Statistics at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand.

Zusammenfassung
An approach to complexity theory which offers a means of analysing algorithms in terms of their tractability. The authors consider the problem in terms of parameterized languages and taking "k-slices" of the language, thus introducing readers to new classes of algorithms which may be analysed more precisely than was the case until now.

Inhalt
1 Computers, Complexity, and Intractability from the Parametric Point of View.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 The Role of Computational Complexity in Modern Science.- 1.3 The Story of Dr.O, Continued.- 1.4 Reworking the Foundations of Computational Complexity.- 1.5 A Deal with the Devil.- 1.6 How Parameters Arise in Practice.- 1.7 A Distinctive Positive Toolkit.- 1.8 O No?.- 1.9 The Barometer of Parametric Intractability.- 1.10 Structural Aspects of Parameterized Complexity.- 1.11 An Overview of Current Research Horizons.- I Parameterized Tractability.- 2 The Basic Definitions.- 3 Some Ad Hoc Methods: The Methods of Bounded Search Tree and Problem Kernel.- 4 Optimization Problems, Approximation Schemes, and Their Relation with FPT.- 5 The Advice View Revisited and LOGSPACE.- 6 Methods via Automata and Bounded Treewidth.- 7 Well-Quasi-Orderings and the Robertson-Seymour Theorems.- 8 Miscellaneous Techniques.- II Parameterized Intractability.- 9 Reductions.- 10 The Basic Class W[1] and an Analog of Cook's Theorem.- 11 Some Other W[1]-Hardness Results.- 12 The W -Hierarchy.- 13 Beyond W[t]-Hardness.- 14 Fixed Parameter Analogs of PSPACE and k-Move Games.- 15 Provable Intractability: The Class XP.- III Structural and Other Results.- 16 Another Basis for the W -Hierarchy, the Tradeoff-Theorem, and Randomized Reductions.- 17 Relationships with Classical Complexity and Limited Nondeterminism.- 18 The Monotone and Antimonotone Collapse Theorems: MONOTONEW[2t + 1] = W[2t] and ANTIMONOTONEW[2t + 2] = W[2t + 1].- 19 The Structure of Languages Under Parameterized Reducibilities.- IV Appendix.- A A Problem Compendium and Guide to W-Hierarchy Completeness, Hardness, and Classification; and Some Research Horizons.- B Research Horizons.- B.2 A Lineup of Tough Customers.- B.3 ConnectionsBetween Classical and Parameterized Complexity.- B.4 Classification Gaps.- B.5 Structural Issues and Analogs of Classical Results.- References.