Related papers: Minimal and maximal Numbrix puzzles
We develop and deploy a set of constraints for the purpose of calculating minimal sizes of lottery designs. Specifically, we find the minimum number of tickets of size six which are needed to match at least two balls on any draw of size…
We obtain a bound on the number of solutions of $x^q=x$ in a finite noncommutative algebra over a field with $q$ elements. Furthermore, we completely characterize those rings for which this maximum number is attained.
The Frankl conjecture, also known as the union-closed sets conjecture, states that in any finite non-empty union-closed family, there exists an element in at least half of the sets. From an optimization point of view, one could instead…
In this article we prove the impossibility of some disentanglement puzzles, first building mathematical models that reflect the essential characteristics of these puzzles.
The $2$-adic complexity has been well-analyzed in the periodic case. However, we are not aware of any theoretical results on the $N$th $2$-adic complexity of any promising candidate for a pseudorandom sequence of finite length $N$ or…
The acyclic matching number of a graph $G$ is the largest size of an acyclic matching in $G$, that is, a matching $M$ in $G$ such that the subgraph of $G$ induced by the vertices incident to an edge in $M$ is a forest. We show that the…
Exploring the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) in puzzle solving unveils critical insights into their potential and challenges in AI, marking a significant step towards understanding their applicability in complex reasoning…
We consider the following game. A deck with $m$ copies of each of $n$ distinct cards is shuffled in a perfectly random way. The Guesser sequentially guesses the card from top to bottom. After each guess, the Guesser is informed whether the…
The combined universal probability M(D) of strings x in sets D is close to max_{x \in D} M({x}): their ~ logs differ by at most D's information j = I(D:H) about the halting sequence H. Thus if all x have complexity K(x) > k, D carries > i…
Solving topological grid puzzles requires reasoning over global spatial invariants such as connectivity, loop closure, and region symmetry and remains challenging for even the most powerful large language models (LLMs). To study these…
As language models master existing reasoning benchmarks, we need new challenges to evaluate their cognitive frontiers. Puzzle-solving events are rich repositories of challenging multimodal problems that test a wide range of advanced…
We determine the minimal lower bound $n$, with $n \geq 1$, where the $n$-th power of the radical of the module category of a representation-finite cluster tilted algebra vanishes. We give such a bound in terms of the number of vertices of…
The Collatz conjecture (or ``Syracuse problem'') considers recursively-defined sequences of positive integers where $n$ is succeeded by $\tfrac{n}{2}$, if $n$ is even, or $\tfrac{3n+1}{2}$, if $n$ is odd. The conjecture states that for all…
We study the $\mathbb{CP}^2$-slicing number of knots, i.e. the smallest $m\geq 0$ such that a knot $K\subseteq S^3$ bounds a properly embedded, null-homologous disk in a punctured connected sum $(\#^m\mathbb{CP}^2)^{\times}$. We give a…
We study the approximability of Max Ones when the number of variable occurrences is bounded by a constant. For conservative constraint languages (i.e., when the unary relations are included) we give a complete classification when the number…
Across languages, numeral systems vary widely in how they construct and combine numbers. While humans consistently learn to navigate this diversity, large language models (LLMs) struggle with linguistic-mathematical puzzles involving…
Hakimi and Schmeichel determined a sharp lower bound for the number of cycles of length 4 in a maximal planar graph with $n$ vertices, $n\geq 5$. It has been shown that the bound is sharp for $n = 5,12$ and $n\geq 14$ vertices. However, the…
Maximum subarray is a classical problem in computer science that given an array of numbers aims to find a contiguous subarray with the largest sum. We focus on its use for a noisy statistical problem of localizing an interval with a mean…
Our main result is a sharp bound for the number of vertices in a minimal forbidden subgraph for the graphs having minimum rank at most 3 over the finite field of order 2. We also list all 62 such minimal forbidden subgraphs. We conclude by…
In this paper, we show that every graph with $m$ edges admits a 3-partition such that \[ \max_{1 \leq i \leq 3} e(V_i) \leq \frac{m}{9} + \frac{1}{9}h(m) \quad \text{and} \quad e(V_1, V_2, V_3) \geq \frac{2}{3}m + \frac{1}{3}h(m), \] where…