In this paper we propose a special computational device which uses light rays for solving the Hamiltonian path problem on a directed graph. The device has a graph-like representation and the light is traversing it by following the routes given by the connections between nodes. In each node the rays are uniquely marked so that they can be easily identified. At the destination node we will search only for particular rays that have passed only once through each node. We show that the proposed device can solve small and medium instances of the problem in reasonable time.
A recent paper @cite_25 introduces the idea of sorting by using some properties of light. The method called Rainbow Sort is based on the physical concepts of refraction and dispersion. It is inspired by the observation that light that traverses a prism is sorted by wavelength (see Figure ). For implementing the Rainbow Sort one need to perform the following steps:
@cite_25
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Rainbow Sort is an unconventional method for sorting, which is based on the physical concepts of refraction and dispersion. It is inspired by the observation that light that traverses a prism is sorted by wavelength. At first sight this "rainbow effect" that appears in nature has nothing to do with a computation in the classical sense, still it can be used to design a sorting method that has the potential of running in ? (n) with a space complexity of ? (n), where n denotes the number of elements that are sorted. In Section 1, some upper and lower bounds for sorting are presented in order to provide a basis for comparisons. In Section 2, the physical background is outlined, the setup and the algorithm are presented and a lower bound for Rainbow Sort of ? (n) is derived. In Section 3, we describe essential difficulties that arise when Rainbow Sort is implemented. Particularly, restrictions that apply due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle have to be considered. Furthermore, we sketch a possible implementation that leads to a running time of O(n+m), where m is the maximum key value, i.e., we assume that there are integer keys between 0 and m. Section 4 concludes with a summary of the complexity and some remarks on open questions, particularly on the treatment of duplicates and the preservation of references from the keys to records that contain the actual data. In Appendix A, a simulator is introduced that can be used to visualise Rainbow Sort.