P (complexity) - Definition

Definition

A language L is in P if and only if there exists a deterministic Turing machine M, such that

  • M runs for polynomial time on all inputs
  • For all x in L, M outputs 1
  • For all x not in L, M outputs 0

P can also be viewed as a uniform family of boolean circuits. A language L is in P if and only if there exists a polynomial-time uniform family of boolean circuits, such that

  • For all, takes n bits as input and outputs 1 bit
  • For all x in L,
  • For all x not in L,

The circuit definition can be weakened to use only a logspace uniform family without changing the complexity class.

Read more about this topic:  P (complexity)

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    It is very hard to give a just definition of love. The most we can say of it is this: that in the soul, it is a desire to rule; in the spirit, it is a sympathy; and in the body, it is but a hidden and subtle desire to possess—after many mysteries—what one loves.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)

    The physicians say, they are not materialists; but they are:MSpirit is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: O so thin!—But the definition of spiritual should be, that which is its own evidence. What notions do they attach to love! what to religion! One would not willingly pronounce these words in their hearing, and give them the occasion to profane them.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    ... if, as women, we accept a philosophy of history that asserts that women are by definition assimilated into the male universal, that we can understand our past through a male lens—if we are unaware that women even have a history—we live our lives similarly unanchored, drifting in response to a veering wind of myth and bias.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)