15,838 research outputs found
Can Computer Algebra be Liberated from its Algebraic Yoke ?
So far, the scope of computer algebra has been needlessly restricted to exact
algebraic methods. Its possible extension to approximate analytical methods is
discussed. The entangled roles of functional analysis and symbolic programming,
especially the functional and transformational paradigms, are put forward. In
the future, algebraic algorithms could constitute the core of extended symbolic
manipulation systems including primitives for symbolic approximations.Comment: 8 pages, 2-column presentation, 2 figure
Applying Formal Methods to Networking: Theory, Techniques and Applications
Despite its great importance, modern network infrastructure is remarkable for
the lack of rigor in its engineering. The Internet which began as a research
experiment was never designed to handle the users and applications it hosts
today. The lack of formalization of the Internet architecture meant limited
abstractions and modularity, especially for the control and management planes,
thus requiring for every new need a new protocol built from scratch. This led
to an unwieldy ossified Internet architecture resistant to any attempts at
formal verification, and an Internet culture where expediency and pragmatism
are favored over formal correctness. Fortunately, recent work in the space of
clean slate Internet design---especially, the software defined networking (SDN)
paradigm---offers the Internet community another chance to develop the right
kind of architecture and abstractions. This has also led to a great resurgence
in interest of applying formal methods to specification, verification, and
synthesis of networking protocols and applications. In this paper, we present a
self-contained tutorial of the formidable amount of work that has been done in
formal methods, and present a survey of its applications to networking.Comment: 30 pages, submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial
Computer algebra and operators
The symbolic computation of operator expansions is discussed. Some of the capabilities that prove useful when performing computer algebra computations involving operators are considered. These capabilities may be broadly divided into three areas: the algebraic manipulation of expressions from the algebra generated by operators; the algebraic manipulation of the actions of the operators upon other mathematical objects; and the development of appropriate normal forms and simplification algorithms for operators and their actions. Brief descriptions are given of the computer algebra computations that arise when working with various operators and their actions
Sparse Automatic Differentiation for Large-Scale Computations Using Abstract Elementary Algebra
Most numerical solvers and libraries nowadays are implemented to use
mathematical models created with language-specific built-in data types (e.g.
real in Fortran or double in C) and their respective elementary algebra
implementations. However, built-in elementary algebra typically has limited
functionality and often restricts flexibility of mathematical models and
analysis types that can be applied to those models. To overcome this
limitation, a number of domain-specific languages with more feature-rich
built-in data types have been proposed. In this paper, we argue that if
numerical libraries and solvers are designed to use abstract elementary algebra
rather than language-specific built-in algebra, modern mainstream languages can
be as effective as any domain-specific language. We illustrate our ideas using
the example of sparse Jacobian matrix computation. We implement an automatic
differentiation method that takes advantage of sparse system structures and is
straightforward to parallelize in MPI setting. Furthermore, we show that the
computational cost scales linearly with the size of the system.Comment: Submitted to ACM Transactions on Mathematical Softwar
Introduction to the GiNaC Framework for Symbolic Computation within the C++ Programming Language
The traditional split-up into a low level language and a high level language
in the design of computer algebra systems may become obsolete with the advent
of more versatile computer languages. We describe GiNaC, a special-purpose
system that deliberately denies the need for such a distinction. It is entirely
written in C++ and the user can interact with it directly in that language. It
was designed to provide efficient handling of multivariate polynomials,
algebras and special functions that are needed for loop calculations in
theoretical quantum field theory. It also bears some potential to become a more
general purpose symbolic package
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