Related papers: On a combinatorial problem in the Secret Santa rit…
"No two rainbows are the same. Neither are two packs of Skittles. Enjoy an odd mix!". Using an interpretation via spatial random walks, we quantify the probability that two randomly selected packs of Skittles candy are identical and…
Motivated by a problem in population genetics, we examine the combinatorics of dissimilarity for pairs of random unordered draws of multiple objects, with replacement, from a collection of distinct objects. Consider two draws of size $K$…
We consider the permutation analogue of Penney's game for words. Two players, in order, each choose a permutation of length $k\ge3$; then a sequence of independent random values from a continuous distribution is generated, until the…
Secrecy in communication systems is measured herein by the distortion that an adversary incurs. The transmitter and receiver share secret key, which they use to encrypt communication and ensure distortion at an adversary. A model is…
We analyze the computational complexity of the problem of deciding whether, for a given simple game, there exists the possibility of rearranging the participants in a set of $j$ given losing coalitions into a set of $j$ winning coalitions.…
The research on coalitional games has focused on how to share the reward among a coalition such that players are incentivised to collaborate together. It assumes that the (deterministic or stochastic) characteristic function is known in…
This celebratory article contains a personal and idiosyncratic selection of a few open problems in discrete probability theory. These include certain well known questions concerning Lorentz scatterers and self-avoiding walks, and also some…
Cooperative Parrondo's games on a regular two dimensional lattice are analyzed based on the computer simulations and on the discrete-time Markov chain model with exact transition probabilities. The paradox appears in the vicinity of the…
In symmetric groups, studies of permutation factorizations or triples of permutations satisfying certain conditions have a long history. One particular interesting case is when two of the involved permutations are long cycles, for which…
We consider a coded cooperative data exchange problem with the goal of generating a secret key. Specifically, we investigate the number of public transmissions required for a set of clients to agree on a secret key with probability one,…
Successive pairs of pseudo-random numbers generated by standard linear congruential transformations display ordered patterns of parallel lines. We study the ``ordered'' and ``chaotic'' distribution of such pairs by solving the eigenvalue…
The Deviants' Dilemma is a two-person game with the individual gain conflicting with the choice for global good. Evolutionary considerations yield fixed point attractors, with the phenomena of exclusion potentially playing an important role…
The conjugacy problem for a finitely generated group $G$ is the two-variable problem of deciding for an arbitrary pair $(u,v)$ of elements of $G$, whether or not $u$ is conjugate to $v$ in $G$. We construct examples of finitely generated,…
J. J. Sylvester's four-point problem asks for the probability that four points chosen uniformly at random in the plane have a triangle as their convex hull. Using a combinatorial classification of points in the plane due to Goodman and…
The multiplication game is a two-person game in which each player chooses a positive integer without knowledge of the other player's number. The two numbers are then multiplied together and the first digit of the product determines the…
We give a series of combinatorial results that can be obtained from any two collections (both indexed by $\Z\times \N$) of left and right pointing arrows that satisfy some natural relationship. When applied to certain self-interacting…
A mathematical model for behavioral changes by pair interactions (i.e. due to direct contact) of individuals is developed. Three kinds of pair interactions can be distinguished: Imitative processes, avoidance processes, and compromising…
Let $N_n=\{1,2,...,n\}$. Elements are drawn from the set $N_n$ with replacement, assuming that each element has probability $1/n$ of being drawn. We determine the limiting distributions for the waiting time until the given portion of pairs…
Explaining the evolution of cooperation in the strong altruism scenario, where a cooperator does not benefit from her contribution to the public goods, is a challenging problem that requires positive assortment among cooperators (i.e.,…
When approximating the joint distribution of the component counts of a decomposable combinatorial structure that is `almost' in the logarithmic class, but nonetheless has irregular structure, it is useful to be able first to establish that…