Abstract
Culturally, computer scientists are generally trained in discrete mathematics; but continuous methods can give us surprising insights into many algorithms and combinatorial problems. In this pedagogical talk, I will describe two interesting places where continuous mathematics makes an entrance into computer science: proving lower bounds on the 3-colorability threshold in random graphs using differential equations, and a continuous-time version of Karmarkar’s algorithm for Linear Programming, based on the so-called Newton Barrier Flow.
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Moore, C. (2010). Continuous and Discrete Methods in Computer Science. In: López-Ortiz, A. (eds) LATIN 2010: Theoretical Informatics. LATIN 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6034. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12200-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12200-2_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-12199-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-12200-2
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