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BalancedBinaryTree examples
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BalancedBinaryTrees(S) is the domain of balanced binary trees with
elements of type S at the nodes.  A binary tree is either empty or
else consists of a node having a value and two branches, each branch a
binary tree.  A balanced binary tree is one that is balanced with
respect its leaves.  One with 2^k leaves is perfectly "balanced": the
tree has minimum depth, and the left and right branch of every
interior node is identical in shape.

Balanced binary trees are useful in algebraic computation for
so-called "divide-and-conquer" algorithms.  Conceptually, the data
for a problem is initially placed at the root of the tree.  The
original data is then split into two subproblems, one for each
subtree.  And so on.  Eventually, the problem is solved at the leaves
of the tree.  A solution to the original problem is obtained by some
mechanism that can reassemble the pieces.  In fact, an implementation
of the Chinese Remainder Algorithm using balanced binary trees was
first proposed by David Y. Y.  Yun at the IBM T. J.  Watson Research
Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, in 1978.  It served as the
prototype for polymorphic algorithms in Axiom.

In what follows, rather than perform a series of computations with a
single expression, the expression is reduced modulo a number of
integer primes, a computation is done with modular arithmetic for each
prime, and the Chinese Remainder Algorithm is used to obtain the
answer to the original problem.  We illustrate this principle with the
computation of 12^2 = 144.

A list of moduli:

  lm := [3,5,7,11]
   [3,5,7,11]
                      Type: PositiveInteger

The expression modTree(n, lm) creates a balanced binary tree with leaf
values n mod m for each modulus m in lm.

  modTree(12,lm)
   [0, 2, 5, 1]
                      Type: List Integer

Operation modTree does this using operations on balanced binary trees.
We trace its steps.  Create a balanced binary tree t of zeros with
four leaves.

  t := balancedBinaryTree(#lm, 0)
   [[0, 0, 0], 0, [0, 0, 0]]
                      Type: BalancedBinaryTree NonNegativeInteger

The leaves of the tree are set to the individual moduli.

  setleaves!(t,lm)
   [[3, 0, 5], 0, [7, 0, 11]]
                      Type: BalancedBinaryTree NonNegativeInteger

mapUp! to do a bottom-up traversal of t, setting each interior node to
the product of the values at the nodes of its children.

  mapUp!(t,_*)
   1155 
                      Type: PositiveInteger

The value at the node of every subtree is the product of the moduli
of the leaves of the subtree.

  t
   [[3, 15, 5], 1155, [7, 77, 11]]
                      Type: BalancedBinaryTree NonNegativeInteger

Operation mapDown!(t,a,fn) replaces the value v at each node of t by
fn(a,v).

  mapDown!(t,12,_rem)
   [[0, 12, 2], 12, [5, 12, 1]]
                      Type: BalancedBinaryTree NonNegativeInteger

The operation leaves returns the leaves of the resulting tree.  In
this case, it returns the list of 12 mod m for each modulus m.

  leaves %
   [0, 2, 5, 1]
                      Type: List NonNegativeInteger

Compute the square of the images of 12 modulo each m.

  squares := [x**2 rem m for x in % for m in lm]
   [0, 4, 4, 1]
                      Type: List NonNegativeInteger

Call the Chinese Remainder Algorithm to get the answer for 12^2.

  chineseRemainder(%,lm)
   144 
                      Type: PositiveInteger

See Also:
o )show BalancedBinaryTree

