Cellular Solutions to Some Numerical NP-Complete Problems: A Prolog Implementation

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to the study of numerical NP-complete problems in the framework of cellular systems with membranes, also called P systems (Pun, 1998). The chapter presents efficient solutions to the subset sum and the knapsack problems. These solutions are obtained via families of P systems with the capability of generating an exponential working space in polynomial time. A simulation tool for P systems, written in Prolog, is also described. As an illustration of the use of this tool, the chapter includes a session in the Prolog simulator implementing an algorithm to solve one of the above problems.