Related papers: Algebraic games - Playing with groups and rings

In this expository article intended to be accessible to undergraduate students we introduce a finite abelian group that can be associated to any finite connected graph. This group can be defined in an elementary combinatorial way in terms…

We consider an {\em enforce operator} on impartial rulesets similar to the Muller Twist and the comply/constrain operator of Smith and St\u anic\u a, 2002. Applied to the rulesets A and B, on each turn the opponent enforces one of the…

We introduce CUT, the class of 2-player partition games. These are NIM type games, played on a finite number of heaps of beans. The rules are given by a set of positive integers, which specifies the number of allowed splits a player can…

We investigate a game played between two players, Maker and Breaker, on a countably infinite complete graph where the vertices are the rational numbers. The players alternately claim unclaimed edges. It is Maker's goal to have after…

We consider a two player simultaneous-move game where the two players each select any permissible $n$-sided die for a fixed integer $n$. A player wins if the outcome of his roll is greater than that of his opponent. Remarkably, for $n>3$,…

The work we present in this paper initiated the formal study of fractional hedonic games, coalition formation games in which the utility of a player is the average value he ascribes to the members of his coalition. Among other settings,…

This paper provides effective methods for the polyhedral formulation of impartial finite combinatorial games as lattice games. Given a rational strategy for a lattice game, a polynomial time algorithm is presented to decide (i) whether a…

Nora and Wanda are two players who choose coefficients of a degree $d$ polynomial from some fixed unital commutative ring $R$. Wanda is declared the winner if the polynomial has a root in the ring of fractions of $R$ and Nora is declared…

We consider the interval $]{-1},1[$ and intend to endow it with an algebraic structure like a ring. The motivation lies in decision making, where scales that are symmetric w.r.t. 0 are needed in order to represent a kind of symmetry in the…

An $S$-ring (a Schur ring) is said to be separable with respect to a class of groups $\mathcal{K}$ if every algebraic isomorphism from the $S$-ring in question to an $S$-ring over a group from $\mathcal{K}$ is induced by a combinatorial…

A priori, the set of birational transformations of an algebraic variety is just a group. We survey the possible algebraic structures that we may add to it, using in particular parametrised family of birational transformations.

We encode arbitrary finite impartial combinatorial games in terms of lattice points in rational convex polyhedra. Encodings provided by these \emph{lattice games} can be made particularly efficient for octal games, which we generalize to…

We construct a Parrondo's game using discrete time quantum walks. Two lossing games are represented by two different coin operators. By mixing the two coin operators $U_{A}(\alpha_{A},\beta_{A},\gamma_{A})$ and…

For a group acting on a hyperbolic space, we set up an algorithm in the group algebra showing that ideals generated by few elements are free, where few is a function of the minimal displacement of the action, and derive algebraic,…

We examine the existence of universal elements in classes of infinite abelian groups. The main method is using group invariants which are defined relative to club guessing sequences. We prove, for example: Theorem: For $n\ge 2$, there is a…

Toral introduced so-called cooperative Parrondo games, in which there are N players (3 or more) arranged in a circle. At each turn one player is randomly chosen to play. He plays either game A or game B, depending on the strategy. Game A…

We consider the following combinatorial two-player game: On the random tree arising from a branching process, each round one player (Breaker) deletes an edge and by that removes the descendant and all its progeny, while the other (Maker)…

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…

It is known that in (regular) unital and in subtractive categories, internal abelian groups are simply behaved; e.g., they are the same as internal algebras $(A,s)$ satisfying $s(x,0)=x$ and $s(x,x)=0$, i.e., \emph{subtraction algebras}.…

Two-player zero-sum "graph games" are a central model, which proceeds as follows. A token is placed on a vertex of a graph, and the two players move it to produce an infinite "play", which determines the winner or payoff of the game.…