Mathematical Methods in Computer Science: Essays in Memory of Thomas Beth

The conference Mathematical Methods in Computer Science (MMICS) was held in the memory of Thomas Beth during December 17–19 in Karlsruhe. The c- ference was meant to re?ect the many interests of Thomas Beth. Even though these interests might seem diverse the mathematical methods employed and - pecially algebra as a language were the common denominator of all his scienti?c achievements. The 12 contributed talks reaching from t-designs to integrated circuits were selected from 30 submissions from 14 countries. The contributed talks were complemented by three invited talks. Teo Mora gave a talk on “Decoding Cyclic Codes: The Cooper Philosophy” embracing the areas of coding theory and symbolic computation. These areas were especially appreciated by Thomas Beth, because they combine algebra and algorithmics. Richard Jozsa lectured about “Embedding Classical into Quantum Compu- tion” in the area of quantum information. Quantum information was a focus of research of Tomas Beth since 1993 when he co-organized one of the e- liest workshops on quantum cryptography in Dagstuhl. Quantum information became his passion in 1994 when the connection between the Fourier transf- mation and breaking the RSA crypto system became apparent via Shor’s al- rithm, which can factor integers in polynomial time on a quantum computer. The Fourier transform and cryptography were topics that played an important role in Thomas Beth’s research and this connection, once again, justi?ed his broad view on computer science.

This Festschrift volume contains the proceedings of the conference Mathematical Methods in Computer Science, MMICS 2008, which was held during December 17-19, 2008, in Karlsruhe, Germany, in memory of Thomas Beth.

The themes of the conference reflected the many interests of Thomas Beth. Although, these interests might seem diverse, mathematical methods and especially algebra as a language constituted the common denominator of all of his scientific achievements.

The 12 contributed talks presented were carefully selected from 30 submissions and cover the topics cryptography, designs, quantum computing, algorithms, and coding theory. Furthermore, this volume contains two invited talks held at the conference. One focuses on the area of coding theory and symbolic computation, an area especially appreciated by Thomas Beth, because it combines algebra and algorithmics. The other one discusses quantum information, which again was a focus of Thomas Beth’s research.