Abstract
The incompressibility of random objects yields a simple but powerful proof technique. The incompressibility method is a general-purpose tool and should be compared with the pigeonhole principle or the probabilistic method. Whereas the older methods generally show the existence of an object with the required properties, the incompressibility argument shows that almost all objects have the required property.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Ming Li and Paul Vitányi
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Li, M., Vitányi, P. (2019). The Incompressibility Method. In: An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications. Texts in Computer Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11298-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11298-1_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11297-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11298-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)