English

Taming the wild in impartial combinatorial games

Combinatorics 2007-05-23 v2

Abstract

We introduce a misere quotient semigroup construction in impartial combinatorial game theory, and argue that it is the long-sought natural generalization of the normal-play Sprague-Grundy theory to misere play. Along the way, we illustrate how to use the theory to describe complete analyses of two wild taking and breaking games.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0501315,
  title  = {Taming the wild in impartial combinatorial games},
  author = {Thane E. Plambeck},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0501315},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

35 pages. Accepted by INTEGERS: The Electronic Journal of Combinatorial Number Theory. See also http://www.plambeck.org/oldhtml/mathematics/games/misere