This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Workshop on Parameterized and Exact Computation, IWPEC 2004, held in Bergen, Norway, in September 2004. The 25 revised full papers presented together with an invited paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 47 submissions. The topics addressed focus on all current issues in this new approach to designing algorithms.
The book contains 8 detailed expositions of the lectures given at the Kaikoura 2000 Workshop on Computability, Complexity, and Computational Algebra. Topics covered include basic models and questions of complexity theory, the Blum-Shub-Smale model of computation, probability theory applied to algorithmics (randomized alogrithms), parametric complexity, Kolmogorov complexity of finite strings, computational group theory, counting problems, and canonical models of ZFC providing a solution to continuum hypothesis. The text addresses students in computer science or mathematics, and professionals in these areas who seek a complete, but gentle introduction to a wide range of techniques, concepts, and research horizons in the area of computational complexity in a broad sense.
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. The book is as self-contained as possible and includes a great deal of background material. As a result, computer scientists, mathematicians, and graduate students interested in the design and analysis of algorithms will find much of interest.