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Phase Transition in the Number Partitioning Problem

Stephan Mertens

cond-matarXiv:cond-mat/9807077

Abstract

Number partitioning is an NP-complete problem of combinatorial optimization. A statistical mechanics analysis reveals the existence of a phase transition that separates the easy from the hard to solve instances and that reflects the pseudo-polynomiality of number partitioning. The phase diagram and the value of the typical ground state energy are calculated.

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