CS 38600 Complexity Theory A

  • Course Mechanics
  • Course Overview
  • Assignments and Handouts
  • Informal lecture notes
  • Read Ahead

    • Course Mechanics

    Instructor

    Janos Simon
    165 Ryerson
    2-3488
    simon AT cs DOT uchicago DOT edu
    Office Hours: TBA

    Textbook

    The main text is the preliminary version of the forthcoming book Complexity Theory: A Modern Approach by Sanjeev Arora and Boaz Barak. It is available on the web (Acrobat format) at http://www.cs.princeton.edu/theory/complexity/

    Another excellent book is Dexter Kozen, Theory of Computation, Springer, 2006.
    It is not required, but I will at times lecture from it.

    Course Overview

    The course is an advanced introduction to Complexity Theory. I will try to cover all that I think a theoretician should be really ashamed if they did not know.

    The exact sequence of topics is still to be determined: to some extent it will depend on what the class already knows.

    I will try to provide a more detailed syllabus soon.

    Evaluation/Grading

    There will be weekly problem sets. There may be a final. Some of the problems will be challenging. There will also be 'exercises', that you are encouraged to do to help you master the material, but you should not hand in (we will, however, be happy to discuss your solutions.)

    Class will go at a quick pace. Ask for help if you are lost!

    Assignments and Handouts

    Assignments are due in class the week after they were assigned.

    Assignments given so far.

  • Third Assignment. Due Friday, October 20.

    • Class Content Sketches

    These are mostly notes of what to cover on a given class. They are not lecture notes, and I do not expect them to be completely accurate, except to know roughly what happened at a lecture you missed or dozed through.

    Click here for links to the lectures given so far.

    Please report any mistakes, inaccuracies or other problems with these notes.

    Next lecture

    Click here for a preview of the next lecture. It has the sections of the textbooks I plan to cover. Reading ahead may make the lecture clearer. Please note that I am not rigid about what material needs to be covered in a given lecture. Depending on class response, I may slow down, speed up, or cover tangential material, so there is no guarantee that my plans reflect the material that will be actually covered in class.

    http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~simon/