Related papers: The Exact Query Complexity of Yes-No Permutation M…
The locker puzzle is a game played by multiple players against a referee. It has been previously shown that the best strategy that exists cannot succeed with probability greater than 1-ln2 \approx 0.31, no matter how many players are…
Counter reachability games are played by two players on a graph with labelled edges. Each move consists in picking an edge from the current location and adding its label to a counter vector. The objective is to reach a given counter value…
We study the two-player coupon-collector competition in which two independent collectors draw one coupon each per round from a set of $d$ equally likely coupon types. Myers and Wilf gave finite formulae for several two-player events and…
We present several results on the complexity of various forms of Sperner's Lemma in the black-box model of computing. We give a deterministic algorithm for Sperner problems over pseudo-manifolds of arbitrary dimension. The query complexity…
In two-player games on graphs, the players move a token through a graph to produce an infinite path, which determines the winner of the game. Such games are central in formal methods since they model the interaction between a…
We show that the maximum success probability of players sharing quantum entanglement in a two-player game with classical questions of logarithmic length and classical answers of constant length is NP-hard to approximate to within constant…
In 1981, Neil Immerman described a two-player game, which he called the "separability game" \cite{Immerman81}, that captures the number of quantifiers needed to describe a property in first-order logic. Immerman's paper laid the groundwork…
An open problem that is widely regarded as one of the most important in quantum query complexity is to resolve the quantum query complexity of the k-distinctness function on inputs of size N. While the case of k=2 (also called Element…
We propose a new method for proving lower bounds on quantum query algorithms. Instead of a classical adversary that runs the algorithm with one input and then modifies the input, we use a quantum adversary that runs the algorithm with a…
The existential k-pebble game characterizes the expressive power of the existential-positive k-variable fragment of first-order logic on finite structures. The winner of the existential k-pebble game on two given finite structures can be…
Two standard algorithms for approximately solving two-player zero-sum concurrent reachability games are value iteration and strategy iteration. We prove upper and lower bounds of 2^(m^(Theta(N))) on the worst case number of iterations…
We show that disjointness requires randomized communication Omega(n^{1/(k+1)}/2^{2^k}) in the general k-party number-on-the-forehead model of complexity. The previous best lower bound for k >= 3 was log(n)/(k-1). Our results give a…
We introduce a two-player game, in which each player extends a given sequence by picking a free element in a domain D of the real line. The aim of the players is to control the parity of the number of transpositions necessary to put the…
Given an integer-valued matrix $A$ of dimension $\ell \times k$ and an integer-valued vector $b$ of dimension $\ell$, the Maker-Breaker $(A,b)$-game on a set of integers $X$ is the game where Maker and Breaker take turns claiming previously…
Knuth and Moore presented a theoretical lower bound on the number of leaves that any fixed-depth minimax tree-search algorithm traversing a uniform tree must explore, the so-called minimal tree. Since real-life minimax trees are not…
The complexity of free games with two or more classical players was essentially settled by Aaronson, Impagliazzo, and Moshkovitz (CCC'14). There are two complexity classes that can be considered quantum analogues of classical free games:…
We study lower bounds on the query complexity of determining correlated equilibrium. In particular, we consider a query model in which an n-player game is specified via a black box that returns players' utilities at pure action profiles. In…
We show that the Minesweeper game is PP-hard, when the object is to locate all mines with the highest probability. When the probability of locating all mines may be infinitesimal, the Minesweeper game is even PSPACE-complete. In our…
We study the impartial game PAP (``permutations avoiding patterns''), in which players take turns choosing patterns to avoid. We define a set of length $k$ patterns, $B_k$, and show that it is the unique minimal monotone-forcing subset of…
Consider a two-person zero-sum search game between a hider and a searcher. The hider hides among $n$ discrete locations, and the searcher successively visits individual locations until finding the hider. Known to both players, a search at…