English

The Maker-Breaker Rado game on a random set of integers

Combinatorics 2018-11-29 v2

Abstract

Given an integer-valued matrix AA of dimension ×k\ell \times k and an integer-valued vector bb of dimension \ell, the Maker-Breaker (A,b)(A,b)-game on a set of integers XX is the game where Maker and Breaker take turns claiming previously unclaimed integers from XX, and Maker's aim is to obtain a solution to the system Ax=bAx=b, whereas Breaker's aim is to prevent this. When XX is a random subset of {1,,n}\{1,\dots,n\} where each number is included with probability pp independently of all others, we determine the threshold probability p0p_0 for when the game is Maker or Breaker's win, for a large class of matrices and vectors. This class includes but is not limited to all pairs (A,b)(A,b) for which Ax=bAx=b corresponds to a single linear equation. The Maker's win statement also extends to a much wider class of matrices which include those which satisfy Rado's partition theorem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1803.03793,
  title  = {The Maker-Breaker Rado game on a random set of integers},
  author = {Robert Hancock},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.03793},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

25 pages, 2 figures. Author accepted manuscript. Paper to appear in SIDMA