English

The tree search game for two players

Probability 2022-02-07 v2 Computer Science and Game Theory Combinatorics

Abstract

We consider a two-player search game on a tree TT. One vertex (unknown to the players) is randomly selected as the target. The players alternately guess vertices. If a guess vv is not the target, then both players are informed in which subtree of TvT \smallsetminus v the target lies. The winner is the player who guesses the target. When both players play optimally, we show that each of them wins with probability approximately 1/21/2. When one player plays optimally and the other plays randomly, we show that the player with the optimal strategy wins with probability between 9/169/16 and 2/32/3 (asymptotically). When both players play randomly, we show that each wins with probability between 13/3013/30 and 17/3017/30 (asymptotically).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.11543,
  title  = {The tree search game for two players},
  author = {Ravi B. Boppana and Joel Brewster Lewis},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.11543},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

24 pages. Essentially the same as published version (http://ajc.maths.uq.edu.au/pdf/82/ajc_v82_p119.pdf)

R2 v1 2026-06-23T18:06:57.701Z