CMPSCI 601: Spring 2010

Syllabus and Course Schedule

Prof. David Mix Barrington

Reading assignments are from Arora and Barak, Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach, first edition, available at the Textbook Annex.

Class meetings are Monday and Wednesday 10:35-11:50 in room 140 of the Computer Science Building. There is also an optional discussion section Fridays 11:15-12:05 in room 142 of the CSB. These sessions will focus on background and perhaps tangential material rather than new lecture material, and descriptions below of their contents are speculative. The midterm exam will be during the scheduled lecture period on Wednesday 10 March.

Syllabus adjusted for cancellations (10 Feb 2010 and 24 Feb 2010).


Wed 20 Jan L01  Course Overview, Models (1.1)

Fri 22 Jan D01  The Formal Language Model

Mon 25 Jan L02  Turing Machines (1.2-1.3)

Wed 27 Jan L03  Universal TM's and Uncomputability (1.4-1.5)

Fri 29 Jan D02  The Chomsky Hierarchy

Mon 01 Feb L04  P and its Robustness (1.6-1.7)

Wed 03 Feb L05  Nondeterminism, NP, Reductions, and Completeness (2.1-2.2)

Fri 05 Feb D03  Semantics of Nondeterminism

Mon 08 Feb L06  The Cook-Levin Theorem (2.3)  (DAVE AWAY)

Wed 10 Feb ---  NO CLASS (Snow day) (DAVE AWAY)

Fri 12 Feb L07  Examples of NP-Completeness (LECTURE) (2.4) (DAVE AWAY)

Mon 15 Feb ---  NO CLASS (Presidents' Day)

Tue 16 Feb L08  The P Versus NP Question (2.5-2.7) (MONDAY SCHEDULE) 

Wed 17 Feb L09  Diagonalization and the Time Hierachy Theorem (3.1)

Fri 19 Feb D04  Diagonalization in the Computability World

Mon 22 Feb L10  Applications of Diagonalization and Oracles (3.2-3.4)

Wed 24 Feb ---  NO CLASS (Snow Day)

Fri 26 Feb L11  Space Complexity and PSPACE (4.1-4.2)

Mon 01 Mar L12  L, NL, Reachability, and NL-Completeness (4.3)

Wed 03 Mar L13  The Polynomial Hierarchy (5.1-5.2)

Fri 05 Mar D06  Alternation and First-Order Logic

Mon 08 Mar L14  Alternation and Oracle Machines (5.3-5.5)

Wed 10 Mar X01  MIDTERM EXAM during lecture period on Chapters 1-5

Fri 12 Mar D07  Exam Post-Mortem


SPRING BREAK


Mon 22 Mar L15  Boolean Circuits and Uniformity (6.1-6.2)

Wed 24 Mar L16  Circuits and TM Complexity Classes (6.3-6.6)

Fri 26 Mar D08  Another Model: Branching Programs

Mon 29 Mar L17  The NC Hierarchy (6.7-6.8)

Wed 31 Mar L18  Randomized Computation (7.1-7.4)

Fri 02 Apr D09  Randomized Reachability

Mon 05 Apr L19  Randomized Complexity Classes (7.5-7.7)

Wed 07 Apr L20  Interactive Proofs (8.1-8.2)

Fri 09 Apr D10  Extensions of Interactive Proofs

Mon 12 Apr L21  IP = PSPACE and Beyond (8.3-8.7)

Wed 14 Apr L22  Cryptography (9.1-9.2)

Fri 16 Apr D11  RSA and P versus NP

Mon 19 Apr ---  NO CLASS (Patriots' Day)

Wed 21 Apr L23  Zero Knowledge and Applications (9.3-9.5) (MONDAY SCHEDULE)

Fri 23 Apr D12  Background for Quantum Computation

Mon 26 Apr L24  Quantum Computation (10)

Wed 28 Apr L25  Lower Bounds for Circuit Complexity (14)

Fri 30 Apr D13  General Review of the Course

Mon 03 May L26  Course Summary and Student Evaluations 


Final Exam (cumulative) Thursday 6 May 2010, 8:00-10:00 a.m., LGRT room 101.

Last modified 19 March 2010