Department of Computer Science | Institute of Theoretical Computer Science | CADMO

Theory of Combinatorial Algorithms

Prof. Emo Welzl and Prof. Bernd Gärtner

Mittagsseminar (in cooperation with A. Steger, D. Steurer and B. Sudakov)

Mittagsseminar Talk Information

Date and Time: Thursday, March 13, 2014, 12:15 pm

Duration: 30 minutes

Location: OAT S15/S16/S17

Speaker: Yann Disser (TU Berlin)

In defense of Simplex’ worst-case behavior

In the early 1970s, by work of Klee and Minty (1972) and Zadeh (1973), the Simplex Method, the Network Simplex Method, and the Successive Shortest Path Algorithm have been proved guilty of exponential worst-case behavior (for certain pivot rules). Since then, the common perception is that these algorithms can be fooled into investing senseless effort by ‘bad instances’ such as, e. g., Klee-Minty cubes. This talk promotes a more favorable stance towards the algorithms’ worst-case behavior. We argue that the exponential worst-case performance is not necessarily a senseless waste of time, but may rather be due to the algorithms performing meaningful operations and solving difficult problems on their way. Given one of the above algorithms as a black box, we show that using this black box, with polynomial overhead and a limited interface, we can solve any problem in NP. This also allows us to derive NP-hardness results for some related problems.


Upcoming talks     |     All previous talks     |     Talks by speaker     |     Upcoming talks in iCal format (beta version!)

Previous talks by year:   2024  2023  2022  2021  2020  2019  2018  2017  2016  2015  2014  2013  2012  2011  2010  2009  2008  2007  2006  2005  2004  2003  2002  2001  2000  1999  1998  1997  1996  

Information for students and suggested topics for student talks


Automatic MiSe System Software Version 1.4803M   |   admin login