Books published by Cambridge University Press

The P vs. NP problem is one of the fundamental problems of mathematics. It asks whether propositional tautologies can be recognized by a polynomial-time algorithm. The problem would be solved in the negative if one could show that there are propositional tautologies that are very hard to prove, no matter how powerful the proof system you use. This is the foundational problem (the NP vs. coNP problem) of proof complexity, an area linking mathematical logic and computational complexity theory. Written by a leading expert in the field, this book presents a theory for constructing such hard tautologies. It introduces the theory step by step, starting with the historic background and a motivational problem in bounded arithmetic, before taking the reader on a tour of various vistas of the field. Finally, it formulates several research problems to highlight new avenues of research.

This 1997 book presents the subject of elliptic curves in the style of its nineteenth-century discoverers, with references to and comments about more modern developments. Requiring only a first acquaintance with complex function theory, it is an ideal introduction to the subject for students of mathematics and physics.

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society is an annual collection of articles representing the best current historical research by some of the world's leading historians. This volume features articles on a range of topics, including China, English history, and transnational activism, and addresses issues of historical methodology and practice.

When, where, and how did undercover investigative journalism originate and how did it change British society? For scholars of Victorian literature, nineteenth-century British history, and the history of journalism, this book traces a distinctly British tradition and reconstitutes the pioneering investigations that shaped its global development.

At the founding of the League of Nations, British statesmen drafted a loophole allowing colonies to accede as member-states. Gidney explores how this loophole has shaped norms around sovereignty and its continuing legacy into today's United Nations. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

Intended for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students, this text explores how to construct dependence models including exchangeable, Markov, temporal and spatial models. Readers are empowered to be creative and construct their own dependence models. Examples appear throughout, and multiple applications with data and code are provided.

AI's next big challenge is integrating and automating the essential cognitive abilities of acting, planning, and learning. This comprehensive overview covers a range of models -deterministic, probabilistic (including MDP and reinforcement learning), hierarchical, nondeterministic, temporal, spatial - and applications in robotics.

Ancient wilderness mythologies have been criticised for their role in forming anthropocentric outlooks on the natural world, and idealising human separateness from the rest of the living world. Laura Feldt here challenges these ideas and presents a new approach to the question of the formative role of ancient wilderness mythologies. Analysing seminal ancient myths from Mesopotamia and ancient Jewish and Christian texts, she argues that these narratives do not idealise the destruction of and dominion over wildlands. Instead, they kindle emotions like awe and wonder at the wild powers of nature. They also provide a critical perspective on human societies and power and help form identities and experiences that resonate with the more-than-human world. Feldt also demonstrates how ancient wilderness mythologies played a decisive role in shaping the history of religions. As a sphere of intense emotion and total devotion, wilderness generates tendencies towards the individualisation and interiorisation of religion.

Explores the spaces and events of the interwar Round Table Conference which drafted the blueprint for colonial India's constitutional future. This geographical analysis explores the imaginations, infrastructures, urban spaces and contestations of the meeting.

As international organizations have proliferated, so too has cooperation between them. Cooperative Complexity unravels the ties that bind such organizations by revealing which institutions cooperate with one another and how this impacts the form and effectiveness of global economic governance.