English

Winning Strategies for Generalized Zeckendorf Game

Number Theory 2022-11-29 v1

Abstract

Zeckendorf proved that every positive integer nn can be written uniquely as the sum of non-adjacent Fibonacci numbers; a similar result holds for other positive linear recurrence sequences. These legal decompositions can be used to construct a game that starts with a fixed integer nn, and players take turns using moves relating to a given recurrence relation. The game eventually terminates in a unique legal decomposition, and the player who makes the final move wins. For the Fibonacci game, Player 22 has the winning strategy for all n>2n>2. We give a non-constructive proof that for the two-player (c,k)(c, k)-nacci game, for all kk and sufficiently large nn, Player 11 has a winning strategy when cc is even and Player 22 has a winning strategy when cc is odd. Interestingly, the player with the winning strategy can make a mistake as early as the c+1c + 1 turn, in which case the other player gains the winning strategy. Furthermore, we proved that for the (c,k)(c, k)-nacci game with players pc+2p \ge c + 2, no player has a winning strategy for any n3c2+6c+3n \ge 3c^2 + 6c + 3. We find a stricter lower boundary, n7n \ge 7, in the case of the three-player (1,2)(1, 2)-nacci game. Then we extend the result from the multiplayer game to multialliance games, showing which alliance has a winning strategy or when no winning strategy exists for some special cases of multialliance games.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2211.14973,
  title  = {Winning Strategies for Generalized Zeckendorf Game},
  author = {Steven J. Miller and Eliel Sosis and Jingkai Ye},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.14973},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

24 pages, 8 figures