Algorithms For Random Generation And Counting

Algorithms for Random Generation and Counting: A Markov Chain Approach

This monograph is a slightly revised version of my PhD thesis [86], com pleted in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Edin burgh in June 1988, with an additional chapter summarising more recent developments. Some of the material has appeared in the form of papers [50,88]. The underlying theme of the monograph is the study of two classical problems: counting the elements of a finite set of combinatorial structures, and generating them uniformly at random. In their exact form, these prob lems appear to be intractable for many important structures, so interest has focused on finding efficient randomised algorithms that solve them ap proxim~ly, with a small probability of error. For most natural structures the two problems are intimately connected at this level of approximation, so it is natural to study them together. At the heart of the monograph is a single algorithmic paradigm: sim ulate a Markov chain whose states are combinatorial structures and which converges to a known probability distribution over them. This technique has applications not only in combinatorial counting and generation, but also in several other areas such as statistical physics and combinatorial optimi sation. The efficiency of the technique in any application depends crucially on the rate of convergence of the Markov chain.

Algorithms for Random Generation and Counting

Algorithms and Computation

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation, ISAAC 2013, held in Hong Kong, China in December 2013. The 67 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 177 submissions for inclusion in the book. The focus of the volume in on the following topics: computation geometry, pattern matching, computational complexity, internet and social network algorithms, graph theory and algorithms, scheduling algorithms, fixed-parameter tractable algorithms, algorithms and data structures, algorithmic game theory, approximation algorithms and network algorithms.