Discrete mathematics

Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures

that can be considered "discrete" (in a way analogous to
discrete variables, having a bijection with the set of natural
numbers) rather than "continuous" (analogously to continuous
functions). Objects studied in discrete mathematics include
integers, graphs, and statements in logic.[1][2][3][4] By contrast,
discrete mathematics excludes topics in "continuous
mathematics" such as real numbers, calculus or Euclidean
geometry. Discrete objects can often be enumerated by
integers; more formally, discrete mathematics has been Graphs like this are among the objects
characterized as the branch of mathematics dealing with studied by discrete mathematics, for their
countable sets[5] (finite sets or sets with the same cardinality as interesting mathematical properties, their
the natural numbers). However, there is no exact definition of usefulness as models of real-world
the term "discrete mathematics".[6] problems, and their importance in
developing computer algorithms.
The set of objects studied in discrete mathematics can be finite
or infinite. The term finite mathematics is sometimes applied
to parts of the field of discrete mathematics that deals with finite sets, particularly those areas relevant to
business.

Research in discrete mathematics increased in the latter half of the twentieth century partly due to the
development of digital computers which operate in "discrete" steps and store data in "discrete" bits.
Concepts and notations from discrete mathematics are useful in studying and describing objects and
problems in branches of computer science, such as computer algorithms, programming languages,
cryptography, automated theorem proving, and software development. Conversely, computer
implementations are significant in applying ideas from discrete mathematics to real-world problems.

Although the main objects of study in discrete mathematics are discrete objects, analytic methods from
"continuous" mathematics are often employed as well.

In university curricula, "Discrete Mathematics" appeared in the 1980s, initially as a computer science
support course; its contents were somewhat haphazard at the time. The curriculum has thereafter developed
in conjunction with efforts by ACM and MAA into a course that is basically intended to develop
mathematical maturity in first-year students; therefore, it is nowadays a prerequisite for mathematics majors
in some universities as well.[7][8] Some high-school-level discrete mathematics textbooks have appeared as
well.[9] At this level, discrete mathematics is sometimes seen as a preparatory course, not unlike precalculus
in this respect.[10]

The Fulkerson Prize is awarded for outstanding papers in discrete mathematics.

Contents
Grand challenges, past and present
Topics in discrete mathematics
Theoretical computer science
 Information theory
Logic
Set theory
Combinatorics
Graph theory
Number theory
Algebraic structures
Discrete analogues of continuous mathematics
Calculus of finite differences, discrete analysis, and discrete calculus
Discrete geometry
Discrete modelling
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Grand challenges, past and present

The history of discrete mathematics has involved a number of challenging
problems which have focused attention within areas of the field. In graph
theory, much research was motivated by attempts to prove the four color
theorem, first stated in 1852, but not proved until 1976 (by Kenneth
Appel and Wolfgang Haken, using substantial computer assistance).[11]

In logic, the second problem on David Hilbert's list of open problems

presented in 1900 was to prove that the axioms of arithmetic are
consistent. Gödel's second incompleteness theorem, proved in 1931,
showed that this was not possible – at least not within arithmetic itself.
Hilbert's tenth problem was to determine whether a given polynomial
Diophantine equation with integer coefficients has an integer solution. In
1970, Yuri Matiyasevich proved that this could not be done.
Much research in graph theory
The need to break German codes in World War II led to advances in was motivated by attempts to
cryptography and theoretical computer science, with the first prove that all maps, like this
programmable digital electronic computer being developed at England's one, can be colored using
Bletchley Park with the guidance of Alan Turing and his seminal work, only four colors so that no
On Computable Numbers.[12] The Cold War meant that cryptography areas of the same color share
remained important, with fundamental advances such as public-key an edge. Kenneth Appel and
Wolfgang Haken proved this
cryptography being developed in the following decades. The
telecommunication industry has also motivated advances in discrete in 1976.[11]
mathematics, particularly in graph theory and information theory. Formal
verification of statements in logic has been necessary for software
development of safety-critical systems, and advances in automated theorem proving have been driven by
this need.

Computational geometry has been an important part of the computer graphics incorporated into modern
video games and computer-aided design tools.
Several fields of discrete mathematics, particularly theoretical computer science, graph theory, and
combinatorics, are important in addressing the challenging bioinformatics problems associated with
understanding the tree of life.[13]

Currently, one of the most famous open problems in theoretical computer science is the P = NP problem,
which involves the relationship between the complexity classes P and NP. The Clay Mathematics Institute
has offered a $1 million USD prize for the first correct proof, along with prizes for six other mathematical
problems.[14]

Topics in discrete mathematics

Theoretical computer science

Theoretical computer science includes

areas of discrete mathematics relevant to
computing. It draws heavily on graph
theory and mathematical logic. Included
within theoretical computer science is
the study of algorithms and data
structures. Computability studies what
can be computed in principle, and has
Computational geometry close ties to logic, while complexity Complexity studies the time taken
applies computer studies the time, space, and other by algorithms, such as this sorting
algorithms to resources taken by computations. routine.
representations of Automata theory and formal language
geometrical objects. theory are closely related to
computability. Petri nets and process algebras are used to model computer
systems, and methods from discrete mathematics are used in analyzing VLSI
electronic circuits. Computational geometry applies algorithms to geometrical problems and representations
of geometrical objects, while computer image analysis applies them to representations of images.
Theoretical computer science also includes the study of various continuous computational topics.

Information theory

Information theory involves the quantification of information. Closely related is coding theory which is
used to design efficient and reliable data transmission and storage methods. Information theory also
includes continuous topics such as: analog signals, analog coding, analog encryption.

Logic

Logic is the study of the principles of valid reasoning and inference, as well as of consistency, soundness,
and completeness. For example, in most systems of logic (but not in intuitionistic logic) Peirce's law
(((P→Q)→P)→P) is a theorem. For classical logic, it can be easily verified with a truth table. The study of
mathematical proof is particularly important in logic, and has applications to automated theorem proving
and formal verification of software.

Logical formulas are discrete structures, as are proofs, which form finite trees[15] or, more generally,
directed acyclic graph structures[16][17] (with each inference step combining one or more premise branches
to give a single conclusion). The truth values of logical formulas usually form a finite set, generally
restricted to two values: true and false, but logic can also be continuous-
valued, e.g., fuzzy logic. Concepts such as infinite proof trees or infinite
derivation trees have also been studied,[18] e.g. infinitary logic.

Set theory

Set theory is the branch of mathematics that studies sets, which are collections
of objects, such as {blue, white, red} or the (infinite) set of all prime numbers.
Partially ordered sets and sets with other relations have applications in several
areas. The ASCII codes for the
word "Wikipedia", given
In discrete mathematics, countable sets (including finite sets) are the main here in binary, provide a
focus. The beginning of set theory as a branch of mathematics is usually way of representing the
marked by Georg Cantor's work distinguishing between different kinds of word in information
infinite set, motivated by the study of trigonometric series, and further theory, as well as for
development of the theory of infinite sets is outside the scope of discrete information-processing
mathematics. Indeed, contemporary work in descriptive set theory makes algorithms.
extensive use of traditional continuous mathematics.

Combinatorics

Combinatorics studies the way in which discrete structures can be combined or arranged.
Enumerative
combinatorics concentrates on counting the number of certain combinatorial objects - e.g. the twelvefold
way provides a unified framework for counting permutations, combinations and partitions.
Analytic
combinatorics concerns the enumeration (i.e., determining the number) of combinatorial structures using
tools from complex analysis and probability theory. In contrast with enumerative combinatorics which uses
explicit combinatorial formulae and generating functions to describe the results, analytic combinatorics aims
at obtaining asymptotic formulae.
Topological combinatorics concerns the use of techniques from topology
and algebraic topology/combinatorial topology in combinatorics. Design theory is a study of combinatorial
designs, which are collections of subsets with certain intersection properties.
Partition theory studies various
enumeration and asymptotic problems related to integer partitions, and is closely related to q-series, special
functions and orthogonal polynomials. Originally a part of number theory and analysis, partition theory is
now considered a part of combinatorics or an independent field.
Order theory is the study of partially
ordered sets, both finite and infinite.

Graph theory

Graph theory, the study of graphs and networks, is often considered part of combinatorics, but has grown
large enough and distinct enough, with its own kind of problems, to be regarded as a subject in its own
right.[19] Graphs are one of the prime objects of study in discrete mathematics. They are among the most
ubiquitous models of both natural and human-made structures. They can model many types of relations and
process dynamics in physical, biological and social systems. In computer science, they can represent
networks of communication, data organization, computational devices, the flow of computation, etc. In
mathematics, they are useful in geometry and certain parts of topology, e.g. knot theory. Algebraic graph
theory has close links with group theory and topological graph theory has close links to topology. There are
also continuous graphs; however, for the most part, research in graph theory falls within the domain of
discrete mathematics.
Number theory

Number theory is concerned with the properties of numbers in general,

particularly integers. It has applications to cryptography and
cryptanalysis, particularly with regard to modular arithmetic,
diophantine equations, linear and quadratic congruences, prime
numbers and primality testing. Other discrete aspects of number theory
include geometry of numbers. In analytic number theory, techniques
from continuous mathematics are also used. Topics that go beyond Graph theory has close links to
discrete objects include transcendental numbers, diophantine group theory. This truncated
approximation, p-adic analysis and function fields. tetrahedron graph is related to the
alternating group A4.

Algebraic structures

Algebraic structures occur as both discrete examples and continuous

examples. Discrete algebras include: boolean algebra used in logic
gates and programming; relational algebra used in databases; discrete
and finite versions of groups, rings and fields are important in
algebraic coding theory; discrete semigroups and monoids appear in
the theory of formal languages.

Discrete analogues of continuous mathematics

There are many concepts and theories in continuous mathematics The Ulam spiral of numbers, with
which have discrete versions, such as discrete calculus, discrete black pixels showing prime
Fourier transforms, discrete geometry, discrete logarithms, discrete numbers. This diagram hints at
differential geometry, discrete exterior calculus, discrete Morse theory, patterns in the distribution of
discrete optimization, discrete probability theory, discrete probability prime numbers.
distribution, difference equations, discrete dynamical systems, and
discrete vector measures.

Calculus of finite differences, discrete analysis, and discrete calculus

In discrete calculus and the calculus of finite differences, a function defined on an interval of the integers is
usually called a sequence. A sequence could be a finite sequence from a data source or an infinite sequence
from a discrete dynamical system. Such a discrete function could be defined explicitly by a list (if its
domain is finite), or by a formula for its general term, or it could be given implicitly by a recurrence relation
or difference equation. Difference equations are similar to differential equations, but replace differentiation
by taking the difference between adjacent terms; they can be used to approximate differential equations or
(more often) studied in their own right. Many questions and methods concerning differential equations have
counterparts for difference equations. For instance, where there are integral transforms in harmonic analysis
for studying continuous functions or analogue signals, there are discrete transforms for discrete functions or
digital signals. As well as discrete metric spaces, there are more general discrete topological spaces, finite
metric spaces, finite topological spaces.

The time scale calculus is a unification of the theory of difference equations with that of differential
equations, which has applications to fields requiring simultaneous modelling of discrete and continuous
data. Another way of modeling such a situation is the notion of hybrid dynamical systems.
Discrete geometry

Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are about combinatorial properties of discrete collections of
geometrical objects. A long-standing topic in discrete geometry is tiling of the plane.

In algebraic geometry, the concept of a curve can be extended to discrete geometries by taking the spectra
of polynomial rings over finite fields to be models of the affine spaces over that field, and letting
subvarieties or spectra of other rings provide the curves that lie in that space. Although the space in which
the curves appear has a finite number of points, the curves are not so much sets of points as analogues of
curves in continuous settings. For example, every point of the form for
a field can be studied either as , a point, or as the spectrum
of the local ring at (x-c), a point together with a neighborhood around it. Algebraic
varieties also have a well-defined notion of tangent space called the Zariski tangent space, making many
features of calculus applicable even in finite settings.

Discrete modelling

In applied mathematics, discrete modelling is the discrete analogue of continuous modelling. In discrete
modelling, discrete formulae are fit to data. A common method in this form of modelling is to use
recurrence relation. Discretization concerns the process of transferring continuous models and equations
into discrete counterparts, often for the purposes of making calculations easier by using approximations.
Numerical analysis provides an important example.

See also
Outline of discrete mathematics
Cyberchase, a show that teaches Discrete Mathematics to children

References
1. Richard Johnsonbaugh, Discrete Mathematics, Prentice Hall, 2008.
2. Franklin, James (2017). "Discrete and continuous: a fundamental dichotomy in
mathematics" (https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/vol7/iss2/18/). Journal of Humanistic
Mathematics. 7 (2): 355–378. doi:10.5642/jhummath.201702.18 (https://doi.org/10.5642%2Fj
hummath.201702.18). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
3. Weisstein, Eric W. "Discrete mathematics" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/DiscreteMathema
tics.html). MathWorld.
4. "Discrete Structures: What is Discrete Math?" (https://cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/191/S09/wh
atisdiscmath.html). cse.buffalo.edu. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
5. Biggs, Norman L. (2002), Discrete mathematics (https://books.google.com/books?id=Mj9gzZ
MrXDIC&pg=PA89), Oxford Science Publications (2nd ed.), New York: The Clarendon
Press Oxford University Press, p. 89, ISBN 9780198507178, MR 1078626 (https://www.ams.
org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1078626), "Discrete Mathematics is the branch of Mathematics
in which we deal with questions involving finite or countably infinite sets."
6. Brian Hopkins, Resources for Teaching Discrete Mathematics, Mathematical Association of
America, 2008.
7. Ken Levasseur; Al Doerr. Applied Discrete Structures (https://discretemath.org/ads/index-ad
s.html). p. 8.
 8. Albert Geoffrey Howson, ed. (1988). Mathematics as a Service Subject. Cambridge
University Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-0-521-35395-3.
9. Joseph G. Rosenstein. Discrete Mathematics in the Schools. American Mathematical Soc.
p. 323. ISBN 978-0-8218-8578-9.
10. "UCSMP" (http://ucsmp.uchicago.edu/secondary/curriculum/precalculus-discrete/).
uchicago.edu.
11. Wilson, Robin (2002). Four Colors Suffice (https://archive.org/details/fourcolorssuffic00wils).
London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-691-11533-7.
12. Hodges, Andrew (1992). Alan Turing: The Enigma. Random House.
13. Trevor R. Hodkinson; John A. N. Parnell (2007). Reconstruction the Tree of Life: Taxonomy
And Systematics of Large And Species Rich Taxa (https://books.google.com/books?id=7GK
kbJ4yOKAC&pg=PA97). CRC PressINC. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8493-9579-6.
14. "Millennium Prize Problems" (http://www.claymath.org/millennium/). 2000-05-24. Retrieved
2008-01-12.
15. A. S. Troelstra; H. Schwichtenberg (2000-07-27). Basic Proof Theory (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=x9x6F_4mUPgC&pg=PA186). Cambridge University Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-
0-521-77911-1.
16. Samuel R. Buss (1998). Handbook of Proof Theory (https://books.google.com/books?id=MfT
MDeCq7ukC&pg=PA13). Elsevier. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-444-89840-1.
17. Franz Baader; Gerhard Brewka; Thomas Eiter (2001-10-16). KI 2001: Advances in Artificial
Intelligence: Joint German/Austrian Conference on AI, Vienna, Austria, September 19-21,
2001. Proceedings (https://books.google.com/books?id=27A2XJPYwIkC&pg=PA325).
Springer. p. 325. ISBN 978-3-540-42612-7.
18. Brotherston, J.; Bornat, R.; Calcagno, C. (January 2008). "Cyclic proofs of program
termination in separation logic". ACM SIGPLAN Notices. 43 (1): 101–112.
CiteSeerX 10.1.1.111.1105 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.111.
1105). doi:10.1145/1328897.1328453 (https://doi.org/10.1145%2F1328897.1328453).
19. Graphs on Surfaces (http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/ecom/MasterServlet/GetItemDetailsHan
dler?iN=9780801866890&qty=1&viewMode=1&loggedIN=false&JavaScript=y), Bojan
Mohar and Carsten Thomassen, Johns Hopkins University press, 2001

Further reading
Norman L. Biggs (2002-12-19). Discrete Mathematics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-
19-850717-8.
John Dwyer (2010). An Introduction to Discrete Mathematics for Business & Computing.
ISBN 978-1-907934-00-1.
Susanna S. Epp (2010-08-04). Discrete Mathematics With Applications. Thomson
Brooks/Cole. ISBN 978-0-495-39132-6.
Ronald Graham, Donald E. Knuth, Oren Patashnik, Concrete Mathematics.
Ralph P. Grimaldi (2004). Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics: An Applied Introduction.
Addison Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-72634-3.
Donald E. Knuth (2011-03-03). The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-4a Boxed
Set. Addison-Wesley Professional. ISBN 978-0-321-75104-1.
Jiří Matoušek; Jaroslav Nešetřil (1998). Discrete Mathematics. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-850208-1.
Obrenic, Bojana (2003-01-29). Practice Problems in Discrete Mathematics. Prentice Hall.
ISBN 978-0-13-045803-2.
 Kenneth H. Rosen; John G. Michaels (2000). Hand Book of Discrete and Combinatorial
Mathematics. CRC PressI Llc. ISBN 978-0-8493-0149-0.
Kenneth H. Rosen (2007). Discrete Mathematics: And Its Applications. McGraw-Hill College.
ISBN 978-0-07-288008-3.
Andrew Simpson (2002). Discrete Mathematics by Example. McGraw-Hill Incorporated.
ISBN 978-0-07-709840-7.

External links
Discrete mathematics (http://archives.math.utk.edu/topics/discreteMath.html) at the utk.edu
Mathematics Archives, providing links to syllabi, tutorials, programs, etc.
Iowa Central: Electrical Technologies Program (http://www.iowacentral.edu/industrial_techn
ology/electrical_technologies/index.asp) Discrete mathematics for Electrical engineering.

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