Related papers: On some impossible disentanglement puzzles
We introduce a new family of one-player games, involving the movement of coins from one configuration to another. Moves are restricted so that a coin can be placed only in a position that is adjacent to at least two other coins. The goal of…
We describe geometrically and algebraically the set of unattainable points for the Rational Hermite Interpolation Problem (i.e. those points where the problem does not have a solution). We show that this set is a union of equidimensional…
Jigsaw puzzle solving requires the rearrangement of unordered pieces into their original pose in order to reconstruct a coherent whole, often an image, and is known to be an intractable problem. While the possible impact of automatic puzzle…
We give a broad survey of inequalities for the number of linear extensions of finite posets. We review many examples, discuss open problems, and present recent results on the subject. We emphasize the bounds, the equality conditions of the…
In this essay we'll prove G\"odel's incompleteness theorems twice. First, we'll prove them the good old-fashioned way. Then we'll repeat the feat in the setting of computation. In the process we'll discover that G\"odel's work, rightly…
Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the similarity between two perturbations of the (backward) shift by rank one operators, under certain assumptions on the perturbations. The proof of similarity is based on an explicit…
Understanding invertibility in restricted mis\`ere play has been challenging; in particular, the possibility of non-conjugate inverses posed difficulties. Advances have been made in a few specific universes, but a general theorem was…
We investigate some aspects of bounding, splitting, and almost disjointness. In particular, we investigate the relationship between the bounding number, the closed almost disjointness number, splitting number, and the existence of certain…
Determining the matrix multiplication exponent $\omega$ is one of the greatest open problems in theoretical computer science. We show that it is impossible to prove $\omega = 2$ by starting with structure tensors of modules of fixed degree…
In this paper, we study the descriptive complexity of some inevitable classes of Banach spaces. Precisely, as shown in [Go], every Banach space either contains a hereditarily indecomposable subspace or an unconditional basis, and, as shown…
Combinatorial games lead to several interesting, clean problems in algorithms and complexity theory, many of which remain open. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the area to encourage further research. In particular, we…
Icosoku is a challenging and interesting puzzle that exhibits highly symmetrical and combinatorial nature. In this paper, we pose the questions derived from the puzzle, but with more difficulty and generality. In addition, we also present a…
We consider generalizations of the familiar fifteen-piece sliding puzzle on the 4 by 4 square grid. On larger grids with more pieces and more holes, asymptotically how fast can we move the puzzle into the solved state? We also give a…
Achieving disentangled representations of information is one of the key goals of deep network based machine learning system. Recently there are more discussions on this issue. In this paper, by comparing the geometric structure of…
Properties expressed as the provability of a first-order sentence can be disproved by just finding a model of the negation of the sentence. This fact, however, is meaningful in restricted cases only, depending on the shape of the sentence…
We prove that two pushing-blocks puzzles are intractable in 2D. One of our constructions improves an earlier result that established intractability in 3D [OS99] for a puzzle inspired by the game PushPush. The second construction answers a…
We provide an alternative, simpler proof of the existence of thick triangulations for noncompact $\mathcal{C}^1$ manifolds. Moreover, this proof is simpler than the original one given in \cite{pe}, since it mainly uses tools of elementary…
This paper reproduces the text of a part of the Author's DPhil thesis. It gives a proof of the classification of non-trivial, finite homogeneous geometries of sufficiently high dimension which does not depend on the classification of the…
We prove the impossibility of finding explicit finitary definitions of the spaces of Tsirelson and Schlumprecht in continuous first-order logic.
Separation systems are posets with additional structure that form an abstract setting in which tangle-like clusters in graphs, matroids and other combinatorial structures can be expressed and studied. This paper offers some basic theory…