English

The structure and classification of mis\`ere quotients

Combinatorics 2007-05-23 v1 Commutative Algebra

Abstract

A \emph{bipartite monoid} is a commutative monoid \Q\Q together with an identified subset \Q\P \subset \Q. In this paper we study a class of bipartite monoids, known as \emph{mis\`ere quotients}, that are naturally associated to impartial combinatorial games. We introduce a structure theory for mis\`ere quotients with =2|\P| = 2, and give a complete classification of all such quotients up to isomorphism. One consequence is that if =2|\P| = 2 and \Q\Q is finite, then \Q=2n+2|\Q| = 2^n+2 or 2n+42^n+4. We then develop computational techniques for enumerating mis\`ere quotients of small order, and apply them to count the number of non-isomorphic quotients of order at most~18. We also include a manual proof that there is exactly one quotient of order~8.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0703070,
  title  = {The structure and classification of mis\`ere quotients},
  author = {Aaron N. Siegel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0703070},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

23 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-22T17:52:06.112Z