Related papers: On the Cookie Monster Problem
We solve the truncated K-moment problem when $K\subseteq R^n$ is the closure of a, not necessarily bounded, open set (which includes the important cases $K=R^n$ and $K=R^n_+$). That is, we completely characterize the interior of the convex…
We discuss coin-weighing problems with a new type of coin: a chameleon. A chameleon coin can mimic a fake or a real coin, and it can choose which coin to mimic for each weighing independently. We consider a mix of $N$ coins that include…
We investigate the state complexity of the star of symmetrical differences using modifiers and monsters. A monster is an automaton in which every function from states to states is represented by at least one letter. A modifier is a set of…
Graph pebbling is a game played on a connected graph G. A player purchases pebbles at a dollar a piece, and hands them to an adversary who distributes them among the vertices of G (called a configuration) and chooses a target vertex r. The…
For any configuration of pebbles on the nodes of a graph, a pebbling move replaces two pebbles on one node by one pebble on an adjacent node. A cover pebbling is a move sequence ending with no empty nodes. The number of pebbles needed for a…
Scrambling the standard 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube corresponds to a random walk on a group containing approximately 43 quintillion elements. Viewing the random walk as a Markov chain, its mixing time determines the number of random moves required…
In the natural generalization of tic-tac-toe to an $n \times n \times n$ board where $n \in \mathbb{N}$, it is known that the first player has a winning strategy if $n \leq 4$ and that either player can force a draw if $n \geq 8$. The…
The locker puzzle is a game played by multiple players against a referee. It has been previously shown that the best strategy that exists cannot succeed with probability greater than 1-ln2 \approx 0.31, no matter how many players are…
As a contribution to an eventual solution of the problem of determination of the maximal subgroups of the Monster we show that there is a unique conjugacy class of subgroups isomorphic to $PSU_3(8)$. The argument depends on some…
We prove a lower and an upper bound on the number of block moves necessary to sort a permutation. We put our results in contrast with existing results on sorting by block transpositions, and raise some open questions.
Zeckendorf proved that every positive integer $n$ can be written uniquely as the sum of non-adjacent Fibonacci numbers; a similar result, though with a different notion of a legal decomposition, holds for many other sequences. We use these…
A set of n boxes, located on the vertices of a hypergraph G, contain known but different rewards. A Searcher opens all the boxes in some hyperedge of G with the objective of collecting the maximum possible total reward. Some of the boxes,…
The Rubik's Cube is perhaps the world's most famous and iconic puzzle, well-known to have a rich underlying mathematical structure (group theory). In this paper, we show that the Rubik's Cube also has a rich underlying algorithmic…
Suppose that two independent sets $I$ and $J$ of a graph with $\vert I \vert = \vert J \vert$ are given, and a token is placed on each vertex in $I$. The Sliding Token problem is to determine whether there exists a sequence of independent…
The game of memory is played with a deck of n pairs of cards. The cards in each pair are identical. The deck is shuffled and the cards laid face down. A move consists of flipping over first one card then another. The cards are removed from…
Many practical search problems concern the search for multiple hidden objects or agents, such as earthquake survivors. In such problems, knowing only the list of possible locations, the Searcher needs to find all the hidden objects by…
In this paper, we discuss a stochastic decision problem of optimally selecting the order in which to try $n$ opportunities that may yield an uncertain reward in the future. The motivation came out from pure curiosity, after an informal…
We present new theoretical algorithms that sums the n-ary comparators output in order to get the permutation indices in order to sort a sequence. By analysing the parallel ranking algorithm, we found that the special comparators number of…
We address a well-known problem in combinatorics involving the identification of counterfeit coins with a systematic approach. The methodology can be applied to cases where the total number of coins is exceedingly large such that brute…
We further study the incidence relations that arise from the various subtowers, known as Baby Monster, which exist within the $\mathbb{R}^{3}$-Monster Tower. This allows us to complete the $RVT$ class spelling rules. We also present a…