Finding a princess in a palace: A pursuit-evasion problem
Combinatorics
2012-04-26 v1 Discrete Mathematics
Abstract
This paper solves a pursuit-evasion problem in which a prince must find a princess who is constrained to move on each day from one vertex of a finite graph to another. Unlike the related and much studied `Cops and Robbers Game', the prince has no knowledge of the position of the princess; he may, however, visit any single room he wishes on each day. We characterize the graphs for which the prince has a winning strategy, and determine, for each such graph, the minimum number of days the prince requires to guarantee to find the princess.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1204.5490,
title = {Finding a princess in a palace: A pursuit-evasion problem},
author = {John R. Britnell and Mark Wildon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.5490},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
8 pages