Review

"Chazelle writes well, treats the reader generously, and works passionately to find the common threads in a plethora of important, late-breaking developments at the crossroads of mathematics and computer science. Both as personal testament and crafted exposition, this invitation into ongoing research reads with the feel of an intimate audience with an enthusiastic leading expert. Upper division undergraduates through professionals." Choice

Book Description

Randomization is one of the great resources in algorithm design and also one of its great mysteries. Although randomization seems to provide algorithms with more power, there is no proof that it is indeed the case. This book examines the discrepancy method, which may be the 'missing link' between randomness and complexity. The text discusses a selection of important topics illustrating the fruitfulness of this link. Several of the most exciting recent results in algorithms and complexity are covered, such as communication complexity, pseudo-randomness, rapidly mixing Markov chains, and multidimensional searching. With minimal pre-requisites, this book should appeal to students as well as researchers in computer science, operations research, pure and applied mathematics, and engineering.