We show that minimum connected $(s,t)$-vertex separator ($(s,t)$-CVS) is
$\Omega(log^{2-\epsilon}n)$-hard for any $\epsilon >0$ unless NP has
quasi-polynomial Las-Vegas algorithms. i.e., for any $\epsilon >0$ and for some
$\delta >0$, $(s,t)$-CVS is unlikely to have
$\delta.log^{2-\epsilon}n$-approximation algorithm. We show that $(s,t)$-CVS is
NP-complete on graphs with chordality at least 5 and present a polynomial-time
algorithm for $(s,t)$-CVS on bipartite chordality 4 graphs.
The main objective of this survey is to present the important theoretical and
experimental results contributed till date in the area of online algorithms for
the self organizing sequential search problem, also popularly known as the List
Update Problem(LUP) in a chronological way. The survey includes competitiveness
results of deterministic and randomized online algorithms and complexity
results of optimal off line algorithms for the list update problem.