NP Completeness

NP-Completeness
Preliminaries
• Polynomial-Time algorithm:
On input size n the worst-case running time is
O(nk) for some constant k.
• Turing’s Halting problem:

Not solvable by any computers
• Tractability: Synonymous to polynomial-time.

NP- Complete Problems
(an interesting class)
• No polynomial time algorithm has yet been

discovered for an NP-Complete problem
• No one has been able to prove that no

polynomial time algo can exist for any one of
them
• P ≠ NP most perplexing open research

problem
Polynomial-time Solvable
VS
NP-Completeness
Polynomial-time Solvable NP-Completeness

• Shortest Path • Longest Simple Path
(NP-Complete even if all
• Euler Tour edge weight are 1)
• 2-CNF • Hamiltonian Cycle
• 3-CNF
Continued.
• P consists of problems solvable in polynomial
time.
• NP consists problems that are verifiable in
polynomial time
• If we were given a certificate of a solution , we
can verify whether it is correct in polynomial time
• P  NP ?
• (Open question whether P is a proper subset of
NP)
NP-Complete Definition
• A problem P’ is in NP and it is as hard as any

problem in NP
• If any NP-Complete problem has a polynomial

time algorithm , then every one will have one.
Optimization VS Decision Problem
• Given an instance  of problem A, use a
polynomial time reduction algorithm to
transform it to an instance  of B.
• Run the polynomial time decision algorithm

for B on the instance 
• Use the answer for  as the answer for 

Continued.
Yes Yes

 Polynomial time Polynomial time
Reduction algo Algo to decide B
No No
Polynomial time algo to decide A
• By reducing solving problem A to solving

problem B, we use the easiness of ‘B’ to prove
easiness of ‘A’.
• The same technique can now be used to show
the same hardness of B if we already know the
hardness of A.
Continued.
• We will prove that B is NP-Complete by using
the result that A is NP-complete.
• First NP-Complete problem is required.
• 3-SAT was first proved to be NP-Complete.

Formal Language Framework
• An alphabet  is a finite set of symbols
• A language L over  is any set of strings made up

of symbols from .
• Example:  = {0, 1}, L = {10, 11, 101, 111, 1011,

……….} is the language representing the binary
strings for all prime numbers
• Union and Intersection are defined on language

Continued.
• Complement of L is L’ = * - L
• Concatenation of 2 languages L1 and L2 is the

language L = {X1X2: X1 L1 and X2  L2}
• Closure or kleen star of a language L is the

language L* = {} U L U L2 U L3 U…….
where Lk is the language obtained by
concatenating L to itself k times.
• The set of instances of any decision problemQ is
simply the set *, where  = {0, 1} since Q is
entirely characterized by those problem instances
that produce a 1 / (yes) answer, we can view Q as
a language L over  = {0, 1}, where L = {x  *:
Q(x) = 1}
• We say an algo A accepts a string x  {0, 1}*, if
given input x, the output of the algorithm A(x) is
1. L = {x  {0, 1}*: A(x) = 1}
• A language L is decided by an algorithm A if every
binary string in L is accepted by A and every
binary string not in L is rejected by A
A tentative definition of complexity
Class P
• P = {L  {0, 1}*:  an algo. A that decides

L in polynomial time}.
Verification Algorithm
• Two argument algorithm A, Where one
argument is an ordinary input string x and the
other is a binary string y called a certificate.
• A 2-argument algorithm A verifies an input

string x if there exists a certificate y such that
A(x, y) = 1.
Complexity class NP
• The class of languages that can be verified by

a polynomial time algo.
• More precisely a language L belongs to NP if 
a two input poly-time algo A and a constant c
such that
L = {x  {0, 1}*:  certificate y with |y| = O(|x|
c
) such that A(x, y) = 1.}
• L1 p L2 L1 is not more than a polynomial
factor harder than L2
NP Complete language
• A language L  {0, 1}* is NP-complete if
 L  NP, and
L’ p L for every L’  NP
If only condition 2 is satisfied then L is

NP-hard
Optimization Problem
• Find the maximum sized clique from a graph
• The corresponding decision problem called

clique decision problem (CDP) is NP-Complete
• CNF satisfiability is NP- Complete by Cook-

Levin theorem.
• Karp reduced CNF-Sat to CDP.

Construction
• CNF formula(f) Graph (G)
• It has a vertex for every pair (v, c).
– v is a variable or its negation (v’),
– c is a clause in the formula f that contains v.
• Edges are there between (v, c) and (u, d) if , c ≠
d and u ≠ v’
• Means: between any 2 literals in different
clauses, who are not each other’s negation.
Example
(x U y U z) ^ (x’ U y’ U z’ ) ^ (x’ U y U z)
X’ Y’
X
The 3 highlighted
vertices give a 3-
Z’
clique and correspond
Y
to a satisfying
assignment.
Z
Z
X’ Y
Continued.
• If k denotes the no. of clauses in the CNF
formula (f), then the k-vertex clique in the
graph represents ways of assigning truth
values to some of its variables in order to
satisfy the formula.
• f is satisfiable iff a k-clique exists.

NP Completeness

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NP Completeness

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NP-Completeness

• Turing’s Halting problem:

• Tractability: Synonymous to polynomial-time.

• No polynomial time algorithm has yet been

• No one has been able to prove that no

• P ≠ NP most perplexing open research

Polynomial-time Solvable NP-Completeness

• 2-CNF • Hamiltonian Cycle

• A problem P’ is in NP and it is as hard as any

• If any NP-Complete problem has a polynomial

• Run the polynomial time decision algorithm

• Use the answer for  as the answer for 

• By reducing solving problem A to solving

• First NP-Complete problem is required.

• 3-SAT was first proved to be NP-Complete.

• A language L over  is any set of strings made up

• Example:  = {0, 1}, L = {10, 11, 101, 111, 1011,

• Union and Intersection are defined on language

• Concatenation of 2 languages L1 and L2 is the

• Closure or kleen star of a language L is the

• P = {L  {0, 1}*:  an algo. A that decides

• A 2-argument algorithm A verifies an input

• The class of languages that can be verified by

L’ p L for every L’  NP

If only condition 2 is satisfied then L is

• The corresponding decision problem called

• CNF satisfiability is NP- Complete by Cook-

• Karp reduced CNF-Sat to CDP.

• f is satisfiable iff a k-clique exists.

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