Related papers: A Note on a Picture-Hanging Puzzle

We construct an explicit Hamiltonian cycle in the state graph of the 5-puzzle on a toroidal 2x 3 grid, a graph with 720 vertices. The cycle is described by a short symbolic sequence of 48 moves over the alphabet {L,R,V}, repeated $15$…

We consider the group isomorphism problem: given two finite groups G and H specified by their multiplication tables, decide if G and H are isomorphic. The n^(log n) barrier for group isomorphism has withstood all attacks --- even for the…

Recall the classical 15-puzzle, consisting of 15 sliding blocks in a $4\times 4$ grid. Famously, the configuration space of this puzzle consists of two connected components, corresponding to the odd and even permutations of the symmetric…

We study the problem of cutting a length-$n$ string of positive real numbers into $k$ pieces so that every piece has sum at least $b$. The problem can also be phrased as transforming such a string into a new one by merging adjacent numbers.…

The cover time of a finite connected graph is the expected number of steps needed for a simple random walk on the graph to visit all the vertices. It is known that the cover time on any n-vertex, connected graph is at least (1+o(1)) n…

The palindromic length of a finite word $w$ is defined as the minimal number of palindromes such that their product is $w$. Clearly, this function may take different values depending on if we consider $w$ as an element a free semigroup or…

Untangling is a process in which some vertices of a planar graph are moved to obtain a straight-line plane drawing. The aim is to move as few vertices as possible. We present an algorithm that untangles the cycle graph C_n while keeping at…

This paper describes a class of sequences that are in many ways similar to Fibonacci sequences: given n, sum the previous two terms and divide them by the largest possible power of n. The behavior of such sequences depends on n. We analyze…

We show that for any finite-rank free group $\Gamma$, any word-equation in one variable of length $n$ with constants in $\Gamma$ fails to be satisfied by some element of $\Gamma$ of word-length $O(\log (n))$. By a result of the first…

The non-overlapping sets of pictures are sets such that no two pictures in the set (properly) overlap. They are the generalization to two dimensions of the cross-bifix-free sets of strings. Non-overlapping sets of pictures are…

In this paper we consider the following problems: how many different subsets of Sigma^n can occur as set of all length-n factors of a finite word? If a subset is representable, how long a word do we need to represent it? How many such…

(Note. The results of this manuscript has been merged and published with another paper of the same authors: A new approach to nonrepetitve sequences.) A repetition of size $h$ ($h\geqslant1$) in a given sequence is a subsequence of…

Numberlink is a puzzle game in which players are given a grid with nodes marked with a natural number, $n$, and asked to create $n$ connections with neighboring nodes. Connections can only be made with top, bottom, left and right neighbors,…

Let $S$ be a string of length $n$ over an alphabet $\Sigma$ and let $Q$ be a subset of $\Sigma$ of size $q \geq 2$. The 'co-occurrence problem' is to construct a compact data structure that supports the following query: given an integer $w$…

We study the complexity of symmetric assembly puzzles: given a collection of simple polygons, can we translate, rotate, and possibly flip them so that their interior-disjoint union is line symmetric? On the negative side, we show that the…

We consider compact representations of collections of similar strings that support random access queries. The collection of strings is given by a rooted tree where edges are labeled by an edit operation (inserting, deleting, or replacing a…

Recall that Janson showed that if the edges of the complete graph $K_n$ are assigned exponentially distributed independent random weights, then the expected length of a shortest path between a fixed pair of vertices is asymptotically equal…

Suppose that we are given two independent sets $I_b$ and $I_r$ of a graph such that $|I_b|=|I_r|$, and imagine that a token is placed on each vertex in $I_b$. Then, the sliding token problem is to determine whether there exists a sequence…

Detecting location-correlated groups in point sets is an important task in a wide variety of applications areas. In addition to merely detecting such groups, the group's shape carries meaning as well. In this paper, we represent a group's…

We provide upper and lower bounds on the length of the shortest non-trivial element in the derived series and lower central series in the free group on two generators. The techniques are used to provide new estimates on the nilpotent…