Abstract
In this paper we discuss the strength of the adversary argument in establishing lower bounds on the complexity of certain sorting-type problems. The relationship between adversary argument and so called information theory argument is indicated and the efficiency of adversary argument relative to the type of comparisons involved in the computation of a problem is investigated. The results concern the effect of polynomial comparisons on lower bounds. In certain cases (MIN and MERGE problems) by using polynomial comparisons we are able to obtain assymptotically the same lower bounds as those established when comparisons without arithmetics are used.
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© 1977 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Ružička, P., Wiedermann, J. (1977). How good is the adversary lower bound ?. In: Gruska, J. (eds) Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science 1977. MFCS 1977. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 53. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-08353-7_169
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-08353-7_169
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-08353-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-37285-1
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