CentralNotice From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search L - notation is an asymptotic notation analogous to big-O notation , denoted as for a bound variable tending to infinity . Like big-O notation, it is usually used to roughly convey the computational complexity of a particular algorithm . It is defined as where c is a positive constant, and is a constant . L-notation is used mostly in computational number theory , to express the complexity of algorithms for difficult number theory problems, e.g. sieves for integer factorization and methods for solving discrete logarithms . The benefit of this notation is that it simplifies the analysis of these algorithms. The expresses the dominant term, and the takes care of everything smaller. When is 0, then is a polynomial function of ln n ; when is 1 then is a fully exponential function...