Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science or Theory of Computation

Theory of Computation by Frank Stephan

Frank Stephan's detailed lecture notes on the theory of computation cover quite a wide spectrum of issues. The document starts with the basics of sets and regular expressions, then goes ahead to grammars and the Chomsky hierarchy, helping one in understanding the structure of languages. Then it discusses finite automaton and nondeterministic finite automata, giving all details about the processing of strings by these models. The notes also treat the composition of languages, normal forms, and algorithms used in computation. Membership testing, whether deterministic or nondeterministic, is also explained, together with the proof of how models of computation handle language recognition. Finally, the approach is important when considering complexity, the problems that turn out undecidable, showing thus the intrinsic limits of computation. This is an important resource concerning formal languages, automata theory, and basic bounds of computability.

Author(s): Frank Stephan

176 Pages

Lecture Notes of Introduction to the Theory of Computation

Authored by Margaret Fleck and Sariel Har Peled, this is a wide set of lecture notes on the theory of computation. These start with the very basic objects such as strings and deterministic finite automata (DFAs) before moving up to regular expressions and nondeterministic automata. This course covers formal language theory, including some advanced topics such as Turing machines, decidability, and several language-related problems. It is intended that these notes afford a comprehensively broad yet deep exploration of the formal languages, automata, and computability material with an excellent bibliography that creates interest among students and researchers.

Author(s): Margaret Fleck and Sariel Har Peled

345 Pages

Introduction to the Theory of Computing

Introduction to the Theory of Computing is a course that undertakes an intensive study of the underpinnings of the theory of computation. Beginning with mathematical foundations, the course moves into regular operations and expressions, and then into proofs on languages being nonregular and other further treatments on regular languages. Other important topics include parse trees, ambiguity, Chomsky normal form, pushdown automata, and Turing machines. Further, the PDF discusses various types of Turing machines, the stack machine model, and undecidable languages, making it a great starting point in the topic of computability.

Author(s): University of Waterloo

227 Pages

Theory of Computation by Kyle Burke

This book surveys some of the most relevant theoretical concepts with computational models. The limits of computation, undecidability of the Halting Problem, several automata models, including both deterministic and nondeterministic finite-state automata, pushdown automata, and Turing machines, are introduced. The ending is dedicated to computational complexity, with NP-Completeness, approximation algorithms, and hardness of approximation.

Author(s): Kyle Burke

114 Pages

Introduction to Computational Theory Lecture Notes

These broad-ranging notes introduce some of the fundamental concepts in the theory of computation. The set starts with a brief introduction to formal languages and their classification, including regular languages and sets. In these notes, finite automata are introduced, discussing their structure and role in recognizing regular languages. This is followed by Context-Free Grammars and Pushdown Automata, focusing on the role in defining and recognizing context-free languages. This will cover Turing Machines, the original model of computation; a review of the Chomsky Hierarchy from a perspective on the various levels of languages about their power of generation. The conclusion deals with an overview of Complexity Theory, mainly dealing with the P and NP problems. It gives insight into the computational complexity in general and into the famous P vs NP questions.

Author(s): BYU Computer Science Department

NA Pages

Advanced Theory in Computation

This is an advanced set of notes on the analysis of algorithms and their complexity. Of interest in these notes are the topics on string matching algorithms, such as Knuth-Morris-Pratt and Boyer-Moore. Suffix trees and dictionary techniques are also part of the discussion here. Among the methods to be shown in a way of analyzing algorithm efficiency are amortized analysis and randomized algorithms. It also treats the pairing technique, Ziv-Lempel coding; further topics on statistical adversaries, portfolio selection, and reservation-price policies that are objects of other techniques discussed herein.

Author(s): Seoul National University

NA Pages