English

On sequences arising from randomizing subtraction games

Combinatorics 2024-05-31 v1

Abstract

In this article, we study the behavior of a broad family of real sequences derived from randomized one-pile subtraction games. For any subtraction set SS, we allow any valid number of chips sSs\in S to be removed at equal probability at any given position and we study the sequences (anS)nN(a_n^S)_{n\in\mathbb{N}} representing the probability of winning the game from a position with nn chips. We characterize these sequences in terms of linear recurrence relations and examine their behavior as nn\rightarrow\infty for all finite SS. We fully solve the cases for subtraction sets of fewer than 3 elements and partially complete the general case for arbitrary SS.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.19593,
  title  = {On sequences arising from randomizing subtraction games},
  author = {Nicolas Capitelli and Francisco Somma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.19593},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

10 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:46:29.727Z