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Related papers: Lower Bounds for the Cop Number When the Robber is…

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We consider the localization game played on graphs, wherein a set of cops attempt to determine the exact location of an invisible robber by exploiting distance probes. The corresponding optimization parameter for a graph $G$ is called the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-01-27 Anthony Bonato , William B. Kinnersley

Cops and robbers is a pursuit-evasion game played on graphs. We completely classify the cop numbers for $n \times n$ knight graphs and queen graphs. This completes the classification of the cop numbers for all $n \times n$ classical chess…

This paper is a contribution to the classical cops and robber problem on a graph, directed to two-dimensional grids and toroidal grids. These studies are generally aimed at determining the minimum number of cops needed to capture the robber…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2019-01-24 Fabrizio Luccio , Linda Pagli

We investigate multiple variants of the game Cops and Robbers. Playing it on an $n \times n$ toroidal chess graph, the game is varied by defining moves for cops and robbers differently, always mimicking moves of certain chess pieces. In…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2018-10-26 Allyson Hahn , Neil R. Nicholson

A generalized Petersen graph $GP(n,k)$ is a regular cubic graph on $2n$ vertices (the parameter $k$ is used to define some of the edges). It was previously shown (Ball et al., 2015) that the cop number of $GP(n,k)$ is at most $4$, for all…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-09-03 Joy Morris , Tigana Runte , Adrian Skelton

In this paper, the notions of {\em trapping} and {\em confining} the robber on a graph are introduced. We present some structural necessary conditions for graphs $G$ not containing the path on $k$ vertices (referred to as $P_k$-free graphs)…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-09-15 Masood Masjoody

A \emph{periodic graph} ${\cal G}=(G_0, G_1, G_2, \dots)$ with period $p$ is an infinite periodic sequence of graphs $G_i = G_{i + p} = (V,E_i)$, where $i \geq 0$. The graph $G=(V,\cup_i E_i)$ is called the footprint of ${\cal G}$.…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-10-30 Jean-Lou De Carufel , Paola Flocchini , Nicola Santoro , Frédéric Simard

In the ordinary version of the pursuit-evasion game "cops and robbers", a team of cops and a robber occupy vertices of a graph and alternately move along the graph's edges, with perfect information about each other. If a cop lands on the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-06-29 Brendan W. Sullivan , Nikolas Townsend , Mikayla Werzanski

The localization game is a variant of the game of Cops and Robber in which the robber is invisible and moves between adjacent vertices, but the cops can probe any $k$ vertices of the graph to obtain the distance between probed vertices and…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-02-10 Vesna Iršič Chenoweth , Matija Skrt

A gambler moves on the vertices $1, \ldots, n$ of a graph using the probability distribution $p_{1}, \ldots, p_{n}$. A cop pursues the gambler on the graph, only being able to move between adjacent vertices. What is the expected number of…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2017-01-09 Jesse Geneson

We define new graph parameters, called flip-width, that generalize treewidth, degeneracy, and generalized coloring numbers for sparse graphs, and clique-width and twin-width for dense graphs. The flip-width parameters are defined using…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-03-26 Szymon Toruńczyk

We adapt the Gy\'{a}rf\'{a}s path argument to prove that $t-2$ cops can capture a robber, in at most $t-1$ moves, in the game of cops and robbers played in a graph that does not contain the $t$-vertex path as an induced subgraph.

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-03-06 Vaidy Sivaraman

A relational characterization of cop-win graphs was provided by Nowakowski and Winkler in their seminal paper on the game of Cops and Robbers. As a by-product of that characterization, each cop-win graph is assigned a unique ordinal, which…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-05-16 Anthony Bonato , Przemysław Gordinowicz , Gena Hahn

We consider the Cops and Robbers game played on finite simple graphs. In a graph $G$, the number of cops required to capture a robber in the Cops and Robbers game is denoted by $c(G)$. For all graphs $G$, $c(G) \leq \alpha(G) \leq…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-07-22 Alexander Clow , Imed Zaguia

We prove that the cop number of a $2K_2$-free graph is at most $2$ if it has diameter $3$ or does not have an induced cycle of length $k$, where $k \ \in \{3,4,5\}$. We conjecture that the cop number of every $2K_2$-free graph is at most…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-03-28 Vaidy Sivaraman , Stephen Testa

Introduced by Harris, Insko, Prieto Langarica, Stoisavljevic, and Sullivan, the \emph{tipsy cop and drunken robber} is a variant of the cop and robber game on graphs in which the robber simply moves randomly along the graph, while the cop…

Probability · Mathematics 2024-03-13 Pamela E. Harris , Erik Insko , Florian Lehner

"Zombies and Survivor" is a variant of the well-studied game of "Cops and Robber" where the zombies (cops) can only move closer to the survivor (robber). We consider the deterministic version of the game where a zombie can choose their path…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-06-04 Valentin Bartier , Laurine Bénéteau , Marthe Bonamy , Hoang La , Jonathan Narboni

This paper describes a 720-vertex connected planar graph G such that cop1(G), denoting the minimum number of cops needed to catch the robber in the 1-cop-move game on G, is at least 4 and at most 7. Furthermore, G has a connected subgraph H…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2019-12-17 Wei Quan Lim

Cops and Robbers is a pursuit-evasion game played on graphs, of which many variants have been developed and studied. We introduce a variant of this game, "Sneaky-Active Cops and Robbers", where all cops and robber must move on their turn,…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-03-16 Tien Chih , Laura Scull

Various models to quantify the reliability of a network have been studied where certain components of the graph may fail at random and the probability that the remaining graph is connected is the proxy for reliability. In this work we…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-11-24 Maimoonah Ahmed , Ben Cameron