Related papers: Intransitive Dice

Let $s$ be the sum-of-digits function in base $2$, which returns the number of $\mathtt 1$s in the base-2 expansion of a nonnegative integer. For a nonnegative integer $t$, define the asymptotic density \[ c_t=\lim_{N\rightarrow \infty}…

Let $TT_k$ denote the transitive tournament on $k$ vertices. Let $TT(h,k)$ denote the graph obtained from $TT_k$ by replacing each vertex with an independent set of size $h \geq 1$. The following result is proved: Let $c_2=1/2$, $c_3=5/6$…

Exploiting the mathematical curiosity of intransitive dice, we present a simple theoretical model for co-evolution that captures scales ranging from the genome of the individual to the system-wide emergence of species diversity. We study a…

Let $k\geq 2$ and $\mathcal{P} (n) = (A_1 n + B_1 ) \cdots (A_k n + B_k)$ where all the $A_i, B_i$ are integers. Suppose that $\mathcal{P} (n)$ has no fixed prime divisors. For each choice of $k$ it is known that there exists an integer…

A conjecture of Kac states that the polynomial counting the number of absolutely indecomposable representations of a quiver over a finite field with given dimension vector has positive coefficients and furthermore that its constant term is…

Roughly speaking, a recurrence relation is nested if it contains a subexpression of the form ... A(...A(...)...). Many nested recurrence relations occur in the literature, and determining their behavior seems to be quite difficult and…

Given k>1, let a_n be the sequence defined by the recurrence a_n=c_1a_{n-1}+c_2a_{n-2}+...+c_ka_{n-k} for n>=k, with initial values a_0=a_1=...=a_{k-2}=0 and a_{k-1}= 1. We show under a couple of assumptions concerning the constants c_i…

In "Recognizing the Maximum of a Sequence", Gilbert and Mosteller analyze a full information game where n measurements from an uniform distribution are drawn and a player (knowing n) must decide at each draw whether or not to choose that…

The Schinzel Hypothesis is a conjecture about irreducible polynomials in one variable over the integers: under some standard condition, they should assume infinitely many prime values at integers. We consider a relative version: if the…

Let $A$ be drawn uniformly at random from the set of all $n\times n$ symmetric matrices with entries in $\{-1,1\}$. We show that \[ \mathbb{P}( \det(A) = 0 ) \leq e^{-cn},\] where $c>0$ is an absolute constant, thereby resolving a…

Consider an n by n array of cards shuffled in the following manner. An element x of the array is chosen uniformly at random; Then with probability 1/2 the rectangle of cards above and to the left of x is rotated 180 degrees, and with…

The intransitive cycle of superiority is characterized by such binary relations between A, B, and C that A is superior to B, B is superior to C, and C is superior to A (i.e., A>B>C>A - in contrast with transitive relations A>B>C). The first…

Given positive integers $n$ and $m$, let $p_n(m)$ be the probability that a uniform random permutation of $[n]$ has order exactly $m$. We show that, as $n \to \infty$, the maximum of $p_n(m)$ over all $m$ is asymptotic to $1/n$, the…

Given a set $A=\{(i_1,j_1),\ldots,(i_m,j_m)\}$ we say that $(a_1,\ldots,a_v)$ exhibits pairwise coprimality if $\gcd(a_i,a_j) = 1$ for all $(i,j)\in A$. For a given positive $x$ we give an asymptotic formula for the number of…

Let $H_1,\dots,H_k$ be Hamilton cycles in $K_n$, chosen independently and uniformly at random. We show, for $k = o(n^{1/100})$, that the probability of $H_1,\dots,H_k$ being edge-disjoint is $(1+o(1))e^{-2\binom{k}{2}}$. This extends a…

Given $n$ positive integers $a_1,a_2,\dots,a_n$, and a positive integer right hand side $\beta$, we consider the feasibility version of the subset sum problem which is the problem of determining whether a subset of $a_1,a_2,\dots,a_n$ adds…

Challenge Theory (Shye & Haber 2015; 2020) has demonstrated that a newly devised challenge index (CI) attributable to every binary choice problem predicts the popularity of the bold option, the one of lower probability to gain a higher…

We consider a natural model of random knotting- choose a knot diagram at random from the finite set of diagrams with n crossings. We tabulate diagrams with 10 and fewer crossings and classify the diagrams by knot type, allowing us to…

Dice odds in the board game RISK were first investigated by Tan, fixed by Osbourne, and extended by Blatt. We generalized dice odds further, varying the number of sides and the number of dice used in a single battle. We show that the…

There is a growing need for discrete choice models that account for the complex nature of human choices, escaping traditional behavioral assumptions such as the transitivity of pairwise preferences. Recently, several parametric models of…