(definition)
Definition: The class of languages for which a membership computation by a probabilistic Turing machine halts in polynomial time with no false acceptances or rejections, but randomly some "I don't know" answers. "ZPP" means "Zero error Probability in Polynomial" time.
Formal Definition: For a language, S, there exists a probabilistic Turing machine, M, that halts in polynomial time. M (correctly) accepts or rejects the string or, randomly, halts in an "I don't know" state.
See also RP, NP, BPP, Las Vegas algorithm.
Note: By repeating the run, the correct answer will always be found, albeit with polynomial expected run time.
After [Hirv01, page 19].
Author: PEB
If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.
Entry modified 17 December 2004.
HTML page formatted Mon Feb 2 13:10:40 2015.
Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "ZPP", in
Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Vreda Pieterse and Paul E. Black, eds. 17 December 2004. (accessed TODAY)
Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/zpp.html