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.
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.
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.
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/