Related papers: Depth in Bingo Closure
A Subtraction-Division game is a two player combinatorial game with three parameters: a set S, a set D, and a number n. The game starts at n, and is a race to say the number 1. Each player, on their turn, can either move the total to n-s…
Circular nim $CN(m, k)$ is a variant of nim, in which there are $m$ piles of tokens arranged in a circle and each player, in their turn, chooses at most $k$ consecutive piles in the circle and removes an arbitrary number of tokens from each…
A magic SET square is a 3 by 3 table of SET cards such that each row, column, diagonal, and anti-diagonal is a set. We allow the following transformations of the square: shuffling features, shuffling values within the features, rotations…
We consider the chessboard pebbling problem analyzed by Chung, Graham, Morrison and Odlyzko [3]. We study the number of reachable configurations $G(k)$ and a related double sequence $G(k,m)$. Exact expressions for these are derived, and we…
Random walks are a primary means for extracting information from large-scale graphs. While most real-world graphs are inherently dynamic, state-of-the-art random walk engines failed to efficiently support such a critical use case. This…
Consider a game consisting of independent turns with even money payoffs in which the player wins with a fixed probability $p \geq 1/3$ and loses with probability $1 - p$. The Labouchere system is a betting strategy which entails keeping a…
Assume that letters (from a finite alphabet) in a text form a Markov chain. We track two distinct words, $U$ and $D$. A gambler gains 1 point for each occurrence of $U$ (including overlapping occurrences) and loses 1 point for each…
A linear algorithm is described for solving the n-Queens Completion problem for an arbitrary composition of k queens, consistently distributed on a chessboard of size n x n. Two important rules are used in the algorithm: a) the rule of…
We analyze what happens to the average duration of a game of Chutes and Ladders as the probability of rolling $\delta \in \{ 1,2,3,4,5,6\}$ approaches 100%. We utilize Markov models, and Monte Carlo simulations in Python. We also introduce…
The Game of Cycles, introduced by Su (2020), is played on a simple connected planar graph together with its bounded cells, and players take turns marking edges with arrows according to a sink-source rule that gives the game a topological…
A multiloop with $s\in \mathbb{N}$ strands is a generic immersion $\gamma\colon \sqcup_1^s \mathbb{S}^1 \looparrowright \Sigma$ of the union of $s$ circles into a surface $\Sigma$, considered up to homeomorphisms. A pinning set of $\gamma$…
A right triangular billiard system is equivalent to the system of two colliding particles confined in a one-dimensional box. In spite of their seeming simplicity, no definite conclusion has been drawn so far concerning their ergodic…
This is an updated and expanded version of our earlier survey article \cite{Gut5}. Section $\S 1$ introduces the subject matter. Sections $\S 2 - \S 4$ expose the basic material following the paradigm of elliptic, hyperbolic and parabolic…
We prove that the single-player game clobber is solvable in linear time when played on a line or on a cycle. For this purpose, we show that this game is equivalent to an optimization problem on a set of words defined by seven classes of…
A game is rigid if a near-optimal score guarantees, under the sole assumption of the validity of quantum mechanics, that the players are using an approximately unique quantum strategy. Rigidity has a vital role in quantum cryptography as it…
We investigate a type of a Sudoku variant called Sudo-Kurve, which allows bent rows and columns, and develop a new, yet equivalent, variant we call a Sudo-Cube. We examine the total number of distinct solution grids for this type with or…
We consider the problem of upper bounding the number of circular transpositions needed to sort a permutation. It is well known that any permutation can be sorted using at most $n(n-1)/2$ adjacent transpositions. We show that, if we allow…
We present a novel method for solving square jigsaw puzzles based on global optimization. The method is fully automatic, assumes no prior information, and can handle puzzles with known or unknown piece orientation. At the core of the…
An algorithm based on backward induction is devised in order to compute the optimal sequence of games to be played in Parrondo games. The algorithm can be used to find the optimal sequence for any finite number of turns or in the steady…
We show that two-dimensional billiard systems are Turing complete, in the sense that the halting of any Turing machine with a given input is equivalent to a certain bounded trajectory in this system entering a specified open set. Billiards…