English

Generalized Algorithm for Wythoff's Game with Basis Vector $(2^b,2^b)$

Combinatorics 2017-02-16 v2

Abstract

Wythoff's Game is a variation of Nim in which players may take an equal number of stones from each pile or make valid Nim moves. W. A. Wythoff proved that the set of P-Positions (losing position), CC, for Wythoff's Game is given by C:={(kϕ,kϕ2),(kϕ2,kϕ):kZ0}C := \left\{ (\lfloor k\phi \rfloor, \lfloor k\phi^2 \rfloor), (\lfloor k\phi^2 \rfloor, \lfloor k\phi \rfloor) : k \in \mathbb Z_{\geq 0} \right\}. An open Wythoff problem remains where players make the valid Nim moves or remove kbkb stones from each pile, where bb is a fixed integer. We denote this as the (b,b)(b,b) game. For example, regular Wythoff's Game is just the (1,1)(1,1) game. In 2009, Ducheˆ{\^e}ne and Gravier proved an algorithm to generate the set of P-Positions for the (2,2)(2,2) game by exploiting the periodic nature of the differences of stones between the two piles modulo 44. We observe similar cyclic behaviour for any bb, where bb is a power of 22, modulo b2b^2, and construct an algorithm to generate the set of P-Positions for this game. Let aa be a power of 22. We prove our algorithm works by first showing that it holds for the first a2a^2 terms in the (a,a)(a,a) game. Next, we construct an ordered multiset for the (2a,2a)(2a,2a) game from the a2a^2 terms, and an inductive proof follows. Moreover, we conjecture that all cyclic games require aa to be a power of 22, suggesting that there is no similar structure in the generalised (b,b)(b,b) game where bb isn't a power of 22. Future directions for generalising this result would likely utilise numeration systems, particularly the PV numbers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1612.03068,
  title  = {Generalized Algorithm for Wythoff's Game with Basis Vector $(2^b,2^b)$},
  author = {Shubham Aggarwal and Jared Geller and Shuvom Sadhuka and Max Yu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.03068},
  year   = {2017}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T17:18:45.878Z