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Related papers: Lazy Cops and Robbers played on Graphs

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"Zombies and Survivor" is a variant of the well-studied game of "Cops and Robber" where the zombies (cops) can only move closer to the survivor (robber). We consider the deterministic version of the game where a zombie can choose their path…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-06-04 Valentin Bartier , Laurine Bénéteau , Marthe Bonamy , Hoang La , Jonathan Narboni

This paper is a contribution to the classical cops and robber problem on a graph, directed to two-dimensional grids and toroidal grids. These studies are generally aimed at determining the minimum number of cops needed to capture the robber…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2019-01-24 Fabrizio Luccio , Linda Pagli

In previous work, we introduced median decompositions, a generalisation of tree decompositions where a graph can be modelled after any median graph, along with a hierarchy of $i$-medianwidth parameters $(mw_i)_{i\geq 1}$ starting from…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-03-23 Konstantinos Stavropoulos

The game of Cops and Robber is traditionally played on a finite graph. The purpose of this note is to introduce and analyze the game that is played on an arbitrary geodesic space. The game is defined in such a way that it preserves the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-12-07 Bojan Mohar

In 2019, Sivaraman conjectured that every $P_k$-free graph has cop number at most $k-3$. In the same year, Liu proved this conjecture for $(P_k,\text{claw})$-free graphs. Recently Chudnovsky, Norin, Seymour, and Turcotte proved this…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-09-16 Alexander Clow , Erin Meger

A hole in a graph is an induced cycle of length at least 4. We give a simple winning strategy for t-3 cops to capture a robber in the game of cops and robbers played in a graph that does not contain a hole of length at least t. This…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-01-03 Vaidy Sivaraman

The deduction game is a variation of the game of cops and robber on graphs in which searchers must capture an invisible evader in at most one move. Searchers know each others' initial locations, but can only communicate if they are on the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-12-24 Andrea Burgess , Danny Dyer , Mozhgan Farahani

We consider the Cops and Robbers game played on finite simple graphs. In a graph $G$, the number of cops required to capture a robber in the Cops and Robbers game is denoted by $c(G)$. For all graphs $G$, $c(G) \leq \alpha(G) \leq…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-07-22 Alexander Clow , Imed Zaguia

A gambler moves on the vertices $1, \ldots, n$ of a graph using the probability distribution $p_{1}, \ldots, p_{n}$. A cop pursues the gambler on the graph, only being able to move between adjacent vertices. What is the expected number of…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2017-01-09 Jesse Geneson

We prove that the cop number of any $2K_2$-free graph is at most 2, proving a conjecture of Sivaraman and Testa. We also show that the upper bound of $3$ on the cop number of $2K_1+K_2$-free (co-diamond--free) graphs is best possible.

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-10-29 Jérémie Turcotte

In this paper we analyze and model three open problems posed by Harris, Insko, Prieto-Langarica, Stoisavljevic, and Sullivan in 2020 concerning the tipsy cop and robber game on graphs. The three different scenarios we model account for…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-03-01 Viktoriya Bardenova , Vincent Ciarcia , Erik Insko

\textit{Pursuit-evasion games} have been intensively studied for several decades due to their numerous applications in artificial intelligence, robot motion planning, database theory, distributed computing, and algorithmic theory.…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2023-07-11 Harmender Gahlawat , Meirav Zehavi

In the game of Cops and Robbers, the capture time of a graph is the minimum number of moves needed by the cops to capture the robber, assuming optimal play. We prove that the capture time of the $n$-dimensional hypercube is $\Theta (n\ln…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2013-08-16 Anthony Bonato , William B. Kinnersley , P. Gordinowicz , P. Pralat

In the `Covering' pursuit game on a graph, a robber and a set of cops play alternately, with the cops each moving to an adjacent vertex (or not moving) and the robber moving to a vertex at distance at most 2 from his current vertex. The aim…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-04-22 Benjamin Gillott

We investigate various pursuit-evasion parameters on latin square graphs, including the cop number, metric dimension, and localization number. The cop number of latin square graphs is studied, and for $k$-MOLS$(n),$ bounds for the cop…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-10-01 Shreya Ahirwar , Anthony Bonato , Leanna Gittins , Alice Huang , Trent G. Marbach , Tomer Zaidman

This paper describes a 720-vertex connected planar graph G such that cop1(G), denoting the minimum number of cops needed to catch the robber in the 1-cop-move game on G, is at least 4 and at most 7. Furthermore, G has a connected subgraph H…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2019-12-17 Wei Quan Lim

The main topic of this paper is motivated by a localization problem in cellular networks. Given a graph $G$ we want to localize a walking agent by checking his distance to as few vertices as possible. The model we introduce is based on a…

In this paper, we consider a variant of the cops and robbers game on a graph, introduced by Kinnersley and Peterson, in which every time the robber uses an edge, it is removed from the graph, known as bridge-burning cops and robbers. In…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-11-21 Rebekah Herrman , Peter van Hintum , Stephen G. Z. Smith

We consider the localization game played on graphs, wherein a set of cops attempt to determine the exact location of an invisible robber by exploiting distance probes. The corresponding optimization parameter for a graph $G$ is called the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-01-27 Anthony Bonato , William B. Kinnersley

We consider the game of Zombies and Survivors as introduced by Fitzpatrick, Howell, Messinger and Pike (2016) This is a variation of the game Cops and Robber where the zombies (in the cops' role) are of limited intelligence and will always…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2018-06-13 Shannon L. Fitzpatrick