Rudolf Ahlswede

The sixth volume of Rudolf Ahlswede's lectures on Information Theory is focused on Identification Theory. In contrast to Shannon's classical coding scheme for the transmission of a message over a noisy channel, in the theory of identification the decoder is not really interested in what the received message is, but only in deciding whether a message, which is of special interest to him, has been sent or not. There are also algorithmic problems where it is not necessary to calculate the solution, but only to check whether a certain given answer is correct. Depending on the problem, this answer might be much easier to give than finding the solution. ``Easier'' in this context means using fewer resources like channel usage, computing time or storage space. Ahlswede and Dueck's main result was that, in contrast to transmission problems, where the possible code sizes grow exponentially fast with block length, the size of identification codes will grow doubly exponentially fast. The theory of identification has now developed into a sophisticated mathematical discipline with many branches and facets, forming part of the Post Shannon theory in which Ahlswede was one of the leading experts. New discoveries in this theory are motivated both by concrete engineering problems and by explorations of the inherent properties of the mathematical structures. Rudolf Ahlswede wrote: It seems that the whole body of present day Information Theory will undergo serious revisions and some dramatic expansions. In this book we will open several directions of future research and start the mathematical description of communication models in great generality. For some specific problems we provide solutions or ideas for their solutions. The lectures presented in this work, which consists of 10 volumes, are suitable for graduate students in Mathematics, and also for those working in Theoretical Computer Science, Physics, and Electrical Engineering with a background in basic Mathematics. The lectures can be used as the basis for courses or to supplement courses in many ways. Ph.D. students will also find research problems, often with conjectures, that offer potential subjects for a thesis. More advanced researchers may find questions which form the basis of entire research programs. The book also contains an afterword by Gunter Dueck.

Rudolf Ahlswede’s Lectures on Information Theory 6

Identification and Other Probabilistic Models

The fourth volume of Rudolf Ahlswede’s lectures on Information Theory is focused on Combinatorics. Ahlswede was originally motivated to study combinatorial aspects of Information Theory via zero-error codes: in this case the structure of the coding problems usually drastically changes from probabilistic to combinatorial. The best example is Shannon’s zero error capacity, where independent sets in graphs have to be examined. The extension to multiple access channels leads to the Zarankiewicz problem. A code can be regarded combinatorially as a hypergraph; and many coding theorems can be obtained by appropriate colourings or coverings of the underlying hypergraphs. Several such colouring and covering techniques and their applications are introduced in this book. Furthermore, codes produced by permutations and one of Ahlswede’s favourite research fields -- extremal problems in Combinatorics -- are presented. Whereas the first part of the book concentrates on combinatorial methods in order to analyse classical codes as prefix codes or codes in the Hamming metric, the second is devoted to combinatorial models in Information Theory. Here the code concept already relies on a rather combinatorial structure, as in several concrete models of multiple access channels or more refined distortions. An analytical tool coming into play, especially during the analysis of perfect codes, is the use of orthogonal polynomials. Classical information processing concerns the main tasks of gaining knowledge and the storage, transmission and hiding of data. The first task is the prime goal of Statistics. For transmission and hiding data, Shannon developed an impressive mathematical theory called Information Theory, which he based on probabilistic models. The theory largely involves the concept of codes with small error probabilities in spite of noise in the transmission, which is modeled by channels. The lectures presented in this work are suitable for graduate students in Mathematics, and also for those working in Theoretical Computer Science, Physics, and Electrical Engineering with a background in basic Mathematics. The lectures can be used as the basis for courses or to supplement courses in many ways. Ph.D. students will also find research problems, often with conjectures, that offer potential subjects for a thesis. More advanced researchers may find questions which form the basis of entire research programs.

Rudolf Ahlswede’s Lectures on Information Theory 4

Combinatorial Methods and Models

Vladimir Blinovsky

The lectures concentrate on highlights in Combinatorial (ChaptersII and III) and Number Theoretical (ChapterIV) Extremal Theory, in particular on the solution of famous problems which were open for many decades. However, the organization of the lectures in six chapters does neither follow the historic developments nor the connections between ideas in several cases. With the speci?ed auxiliary results in ChapterI on Probability Theory, Graph Theory, etc., all chapters can be read and taught independently of one another. In addition to the 16 lectures organized in 6 chapters of the main part of the book, there is supplementary material for most of them in the Appendix. In parti- lar, there are applications and further exercises, research problems, conjectures, and even research programs. The following books and reports [B97], [ACDKPSWZ00], [A01], and [ABCABDM06], mostly of the authors, are frequently cited in this book, especially in the Appendix, and we therefore mark them by short labels as [B], [N], [E], and [G]. We emphasize that there are also “Exercises” in [B], a “Problem Section” with contributions by several authors on pages 1063–1105 of [G], which are often of a combinatorial nature, and “Problems and Conjectures” on pages 172–173 of [E].

Lectures on Advances in Combinatorics

Ning Cai

Christian Deppe

Lars Bäumer

Harout Aydinian

Haik Mashurian

This book collects 63 revised, full-papers contributed to a research project on the "General Theory of Information Transfer and Combinatorics" that was hosted from 2001-2004 at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZIF) of Bielefeld University and several incorporated meetings. Topics covered include probabilistic models, cryptology, pseudo random sequences, quantum models, pattern discovery, language evolution, and network coding.

Rudolf Ahlswede

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