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In the Localization game played on graphs, a set of cops uses distance probes to identify the location of an invisible robber. We present an extension of the game and its main parameter, the localization number, to directed graphs. We…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2022-08-17 Anthony Bonato , Ryan Cushman , Trent G. Marbach , Brittany Pittman

We discuss winning possibilities of players in various variants of cops and robber game played on large random graphs, a testbed for various kinds of network queries, search problems in particular. We explore the use of logic frameworks to…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2025-12-01 Sourav Chakraborty , Sujata Ghosh , Smiha Samanta

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

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

For a graph $G$ and $p\in [0,1]$, let $G_p$ arise from $G$ by deleting every edge mutually independently with probability $1-p$. The random graph model $(K_n)_p$ is certainly the most investigated random graph model and also known as the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2015-12-16 Stefan Ehard , Felix Joos

"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

Pursuit-evasion games, such as the game of Revolutionaries and Spies, are a simplified model for network security. In the game we consider in this paper, a team of $r$ revolutionaries tries to hold an unguarded meeting consisting of $m$…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-06-12 Dieter Mitsche , Pawel Pralat

We prove that every connected $P_5$-free graph has cop number at most two, solving a conjecture of Sivaraman. In order to do so, we first prove that every connected $P_5$-free graph $G$ with independence number at least three contains a…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-10-29 Maria Chudnovsky , Sergey Norin , Paul Seymour , Jérémie Turcotte

In 2019, Sivaraman conjectured that every $P_k$-free graph has cop number at most $k-3$. In the same year, Liu proved this conjecture for $(P_k,\text{claw})$-free graphs. Recently Chudnovsky, Norin, Seymour, and Turcotte proved this…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-09-16 Alexander Clow , Erin Meger

The deduction game may be thought of as a variant on the classical game of cops and robber in which the cops (searchers) aim to capture an invisible robber (evader); each cop is allowed to move at most once, and cops situated on different…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-10-30 Andrea C. Burgess , Nancy E. Clarke , Shannon L. Fitzpatrick , Melissa A. Huggan

We introduce the bodyguard problem for graphs. This is a variation of Surrounding Cops and Robber but, in this model, a smallest possible group of bodyguards must surround the president and then maintain this protection indefinitely. We…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-08-15 Nancy E. Clarke , Danny Dyer , William Kellough

We introduce and study the Generalized Cops and Robbers game (GCR), an N-player pursuit game in graphs. The two-player version is essentially equivalent to the classic Cops and Robbers (CR) game. The three-player version can be understood…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2018-07-24 Athanasios Kehagias

We study a two-person game played on graphs based on the widely studied chip-firing game. Players Max and Min alternately place chips on the vertices of a graph. When a vertex accumulates as many chips as its degree, it fires, sending one…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2013-05-09 A. Bonato , W. Kinnersley , P. Pralat

The $r$-flip-width of a graph, for $r\in \mathbb{N}\cup \{\infty\}$, is a graph parameter defined in terms of a variant of the cops and robber game, called the flipper game, and it was introduced by Toru\'{n}czyk (FOCS 2023). We prove that…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-10-22 Yeonsu Chang , Sejin Ko , O-joung Kwon , Myounghwan Lee

It is known that the cop number $c(G)$ of a connected graph $G$ can be bounded as a function of the genus of the graph $g(G)$. The best known bound, that $c(G) \leq \left\lfloor \frac{3 g(G)}{2}\right\rfloor + 3$, was given by Schr\"{o}der,…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-11-06 Nathan Bowler , Joshua Erde , Florian Lehner , Max Pitz

We study a game on a graph $G$ played by $r$ {\it revolutionaries} and $s$ {\it spies}. Initially, revolutionaries and then spies occupy vertices. In each subsequent round, each revolutionary may move to a neighboring vertex or not move,…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2015-08-06 Jane V. Butterfield , Daniel W. Cranston , Gregory J. Puleo , Douglas B. West , Reza Zamani

The game of Cops and Robbers on graphs is a well-studied pursuit--evasion model whose central parameter, the cop number, captures the minimum number of pursuers required to guarantee capture of an adversary on a given graph. While the cop…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-10-09 Nicholas Crawford , Vesna Iršič Chenoweth

We show that the cop number of directed and undirected Cayley graphs on abelian groups has an upper bound of the form of $O(\sqrt{n})$, where $n$ is the number of vertices, by introducing a refined inductive method. With our method, we…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-10-29 Peter Bradshaw , Seyyed Aliasghar Hosseini , Jérémie Turcotte

We introduce a new game played on graphs, ``Agents and Adversary". This game is reminiscent of ``Cops and Robbers" but has some fundamental differences. We classify infinite families of graphs as Agents-win and Adversary-win. We then define…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-03-13 William K. Moses , Amanda Redlich , Frederick Stock

We introduce and study the game of "Selfish Cops and Active Robber" (SCAR) which can be seen as an multiplayer variant of the "classic" two-player Cops and Robbers (CR) game. In classic CR all cops are controlled by a single player, who has…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2018-09-13 G. Konstantinidis , Ath. Kehagias