Adleman's theorem

From Complexity

This article gives the statement, and proof, of one complexity class being contained in another one. The smaller complexity class is BPP and the larger complexity class is P/poly.

Statement

In terms of complexity classes

The complexity class BPP (bounded error probabilistic polynomial time -- polynomial time where the probability of error is bounded below ) is contained in the complexity class P/poly (languages where, for every length of input string, there is an advice string using which the algorithm runs in polynomial time).

Loose philosophical formulation

The statement is that:

Probabilistic algorithm that is independent of length Deterministic algorithm that depends on length

In other words, we can shed the probabilistic nature of the algorithm but must instead accept length-specific advice that shapes the algorithm.