Recursive Algorithms and the Contraction Method

Abstract

Recursive Algorithms follow the Divide-and-Conquer-Principle. The idea behind this principle is to break a problem into two or several subproblems which are easier to solve (heuristically because they are just smaller problems) and then to construct the solution of the original problem by combining the solutions of the subproblems appropriately. If this idea is iteratively (or recursively) applied then one speaks of a recursive algorithm and, moreover, these kinds of algorithms give rise to a (hidden) tree structure.