Related papers: A physicist's approach to number partitioning
Number partitioning is one of the classical NP-hard problems of combinatorial optimization. It has applications in areas like public key encryption and task scheduling. The random version of number partitioning has an "easy-hard" phase…
In the number partitioning problem (NPP) one aims to partition a given set of $N$ real numbers into two subsets with approximately equal sum. The NPP is a well-studied optimization problem and is famous for possessing a…
Given a sequence of $N$ positive real numbers $\{a_1,a_2,..., a_N \}$, the number partitioning problem consists of partitioning them into two sets such that the absolute value of the difference of the sums of $a_j$ over the two sets is…
The number partitioning problem consists of partitioning a sequence of positive numbers ${a_1,a_2,..., a_N}$ into two disjoint sets, ${\cal A}$ and ${\cal B}$, such that the absolute value of the difference of the sums of $a_j$ over the two…
We study statistical properties of an NP-complete problem, the subset sum, using the methods and concepts of statistical mechanics. The problem is a generalization of the number partitioning problem, which is also an NP-complete problem and…
The treatment of the number-theoretical problem of integer partitions within the approach of statistical mechanics is discussed. Historical overview is given and known asymptotic results for linear and plane partitions are reproduced. From…
We study the optimization version of the set partition problem (where the difference between the partition sums are minimized), which has numerous applications in decision theory literature. While the set partitioning problem is NP-hard and…
The random cost problem is the problem of finding the minimum in an exponentially long list of random numbers. By definition, this problem cannot be solved faster than by exhaustive search. It is shown that a classical NP-hard optimization…
The number partition problem is a well-known problem, which is one of 21 Karp's NP-complete problems \cite{karp}. The partition function is a boolean function that is equivalent to the number partition problem with number range restricted.…
In this paper we apply the multicanonical method of statistical physics on the number-partitioning problem (NPP). This problem is a basic NP-hard problem from computer science, and can be formulated as a spin-glass problem. We compute the…
The probabilistic satisfiability of a logical expression is a fundamental concept known as the partition function in statistical physics and field theory, an evaluation of a related graph's Tutte polynomial in mathematics, and the…
Current quantum computers can only solve optimization problems of a very limited size. For larger problems, decomposition methods are required in which the original problem is broken down into several smaller sub-problems. These are then…
Number partitioning is a classical problem from combinatorial optimisation. In physical terms it corresponds to a long range anti-ferromagnetic Ising spin glass. It has been rigorously proven that the low lying energies of number…
We study the problem of partitioning a given simple polygon $P$ into a minimum number of connected polygonal pieces, each of bounded size. We describe a general technique for constructing such partitions that works for several notions of…
The randomized $k$-number partitioning problem is the task to distribute $N$ i.i.d. random variables into $k$ groups in such a way that the sums of the variables in each group are as similar as possible. The restricted $k$-partitioning…
Optimization is fundamental in many areas of science, from computer science and information theory to engineering and statistical physics, as well as to biology or social sciences. It typically involves a large number of variables and a…
The phase transition in the number partitioning problem (NPP), i.e., the transition from a region in the space of control parameters in which almost all instances have many solutions to a region in which almost all instances have no…
This chapter delves into the realm of computational complexity, exploring the world of challenging combinatorial problems and their ties with statistical physics. Our exploration starts by delving deep into the foundations of combinatorial…
Divide and Conquer is a well known algorithmic procedure for solving many kinds of problem. In this procedure, the problem is partitioned into two parts until the problem is trivially solvable. Finding the distance of the closest pair is an…
The number partitioning problem can be interpreted physically in terms of a thermally isolated non-interacting Bose gas trapped in a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator potential. We exploit this analogy to characterize, by means of a…