A Theory of Complexity, Condition and Roundoff

Abstract: We develop a theory of complexity for numerical computations that takes into account the condition of the input data and allows for roundoff in the computations. We follow the lines of the theory developed by Blum, Shub, and Smale for computations over R (which in turn followed those of the classical, discrete, complexity theory as laid down by Cook, Karp, and Levin among others). In particular, we focus on complexity classes of decision problems and paramount among them, on appropriate versions of the classes P, NP and EXP of polynomial, nondeterministic polynomial, and exponential time, respectively. We prove some basic relationships between these complexity classes and exhibit natural NP-complete problems.