Probabilistic Methods for Algorithmic Discrete Mathematics
Michael Molloy (auth.), Michel Habib, Colin McDiarmid, Jorge Ramirez-Alfonsin, Bruce Reed (eds.)The book gives an accessible account of modern pro- babilistic methods for analyzing combinatorial structures and algorithms. Each topic is approached in a didactic manner but the most recent developments are linked to the basic ma- terial. Extensive lists of references and a detailed index will make this a useful guide for graduate students and researchers. Special features included:
- a simple treatment of Talagrand inequalities and their applications
- an overview and many carefully worked out examples of the probabilistic analysis of combinatorial algorithms
- a discussion of the "exact simulation" algorithm (in the context of Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods)
- a general method for finding asymptotically optimal or near optimal graph colouring, showing how the probabilistic method may be fine-tuned to explit the structure of the underlying graph
- a succinct treatment of randomized algorithms and derandomization techniques