A tourist guide through computational complexity

Stéphane Vialette
Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire
École Normale Supérieure
46, rue d'Ulm
75230 PARIS cedex 05
FRANCE
E-Mail: vialette@wotan.ens.fr

This talk is intended to give a brief overview on the concepts involved in compu tational complexity. Along the way, we will provide an introduction to the theor y of NP-completeness. We will also introduce approximation algorithms and parame terized complexity. In this talk I will focus mainly on two themes:

  1. What is the significance of NP-complete results and approximation algorith ms ?
  2. What are the benefits of parameterized complexity ?
Most of the concepts introduced here will be given by referring to problems oiginating from molecular biology.

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