Related papers: Baron Munchhausen's Sequence
We study the complexity of symmetric assembly puzzles: given a collection of simple polygons, can we translate, rotate, and possibly flip them so that their interior-disjoint union is line symmetric? On the negative side, we show that the…
A famous (and hard) chess problem asks what is the maximum number of safe squares possible in placing $n$ queens on an $n\times n$ board. We examine related problems from placing $n$ rooks. We prove that as $n\to\infty$, the probability…
A new method of composition orthogonality is introduced. It is applied to generate new sequences of orthogonal polynomials and functions. In particular, classical orthogonal polynomials are interpreted in the sense of composition…
The 15 puzzle is a classic reconfiguration puzzle with fifteen uniquely labeled unit squares within a $4 \times 4$ board in which the goal is to slide the squares (without ever overlapping) into a target configuration. By generalizing the…
Let W: R to (0,1] be continuous. Bernstein's approximation problem, posed in 1924, deals with approximation by polynomials in the weighted uniform norm ||fW|| Linfinity(R) . The qualitative form of this problem was solved by Achieser,…
We analyze Solo Chess puzzles, where the input is an $n \times n$ board containing some standard Chess pieces of the same color, and the goal is to make a sequence of capture moves to reduce down to a single piece. Prior work analyzes this…
We critically reexamine the bosonization-debosonization procedure for systems including certain types of localized features (although more general scenarios are possible). By focusing on the case of a tunneling junction out of equilibrium,…
In this paper we suggest analytical methods and associated algorithms for determining the sum of the subsets $X_m$ of the set $X_n$ (subset sum problem). Our algorithm has time complexity $T=O(C_{n}^{k})$ ($k=[m/2]$, which significantly…
The following two decision problems capture the complexity of comparing integers or rationals that are succinctly represented in product-of-exponentials notation, or equivalently, via arithmetic circuits using only multiplication and…
We study the following problem. Given a multiset $M$ of non-negative integers, decide whether there exist and, in the positive case, compute two non-trivial multisets whose Minkowski sum is equal to $M$. The Minkowski sum of two multisets A…
The sequence A000975 in OEIS can be defined by $A_1=1$, $A_{n+1}=2A_n$ if $n$ is odd, and $A_{n+1}=2A_n+1$ if $n$ is even. This sequence satisfies other recurrence relations, admits some closed formulas, and is known to enumerate several…
We introduce SudoQ, a quantum version of the classical game Sudoku. Allowing the entries of the grid to be (non-commutative) projections instead of integers, the solution set of SudoQ puzzles can be much larger than in the classical…
There are many papers written on the Two Envelopes Problem that usually study some of its variations. In this paper we will study and compare the most significant variations of the problem. We will see the correct decisions for each player…
We take a fresh look at the classical problem of runs in a sequence of i.i.d.\ coin tosses and derive a general identity/recursion which can be used to compute (joint) distributions of functionals of run types. This generalizes and unifies…
In this study, we investigate the computational complexity of some variants of generalized puzzles. We are provided with two sets S_1 and S_2 of polyominoes. The first puzzle asks us to form the same shape using polyominoes in S_1 and S_2.…
We consider the unbalanced allocation of $m$ balls into $n$ bins by a randomized algorithm using the "power of two choices". For each ball, we select a set of bins at random, then place the ball in the fullest bin within the set.…
A puzzle about prisoners trying to identify the color of a hat on their head leads to a version where there are k more hats than prisoners. This generalized puzzle is related to the independence number of the arrangement graph A(m, n) and…
We give potential theoretic estimates for the probability that a set $A$ contains a double point of planar Brownian motion run for unit time. Unlike the probability for $A$ to intersect the range of a Markov process, this cannot be…
We investigate a result on convergence of double sequences of numbers and how it extends to measurable functions.
The Poisson process of order $i$ is a weighted sum of independent Poisson processes and is used to model the flow of clients in different services. In the paper below we study some extensions of this process, for different forms of the…