Chemistry - Schreier-Sims algorithm

The Schreier-Sims algorithm is an efficient method of computing a strong generating set (SGS) of a permutation group. In particular, an SGS determines the order of a group and makes it easy to test membership in the group. Since the SGS is critical for many algorithms in computational group theory, computer algebra systems typically rely on the Schreier-Sims algorithm for efficient calculations in groups.

The running time of Schreier-Sims varies on the implementation. Let $G \leq S_n$ be given by $t$ generators. For the deterministic version of the algorithm, possible running times are:

$O (n 2 log 3 | G | + t n log | G | )$ requiring memory $O (n 2 log | G | + t n)$
$O (n 3 log 3 | G | + t n 2 log | G | )$ requiring memory $O (n log 2 | G | + t n)$

For Monte Carlo variations of the Schreier-Sims algorithm, we have the following estimated complexity:

O (n log n log 4 | G | + t n log | G | )

requiring memory

O (n log | G | + t n)

In computer algebra systems, an optimized Monte Carlo algorithm is typically used.

References

Seress, A. Permutation Group Algorithms. Cambridge U Press, 2002.

Categories: Algorithms | Computational group theory