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In the spirit of "multi-culturalism", we use four kinds of computations: simulation, numeric, symbolic, and "conceptual" to explore some "games of pure chance" inspired by children board games like "Snakes and Ladders" (aka as "Chutes and…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-09-26 Thotsaporn "Aek" Thanatipanonda , Doron Zeilberger

Positional games were introduced by Hales and Jewett in 1963, and their study became more popular after Erdos and Selfridge's first result on their connection to Ramsey theory and hypergraph coloring in 1973. Several conventions of these…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-09-04 Valentin Gledel , Nacim Oijid , Sébastien Tavenas , Stéphan Thomassé

In this paper, some new criteria for detecting whether a finite game is potential are proposed by solving potential equations. The verification equations with the minimal number for checking a potential game are obtained for the first time.…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-04-29 Xinyun Liu , Jiandong Zhu

In this work we investigate the computational complexity of the satisfiability problem of sub-fragments of the Bernays-Schoenfinkel class of first-order logic, also known as EPR (Effectively Propositional). While Bernays-Schoenfinkel is…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2026-02-19 Leroy Chew , Mikoláš Janota , Miroslav Olšák , Martin Suda

PPAD refers to a class of computational problems for which solutions are guaranteed to exist due to a specific combinatorial principle. The most well-known such problem is that of computing a Nash equilibrium of a game. Other examples…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-03-19 Paul W. Goldberg

The Reward-Penalty-Selection Problem (RPSP) can be seen as a combination of the Set Cover Problem (SCP) and the Hitting Set Problem (HSP). Given a set of elements, a set of reward sets, and a set of penalty sets, one tries to find a subset…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-01-17 Niklas Gräf , Till Heller , Sven O. Krumke

Adapting techniques from database theory in order to optimize Answer Set Programming (ASP) systems, and in particular the grounding components of ASP systems, is an important topic in ASP. In recent years, the Magic Set method has received…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2020-02-19 Mario Alviano , Wolfgang Faber , Stefan Woltran

We address the problem of solving parity games with imperfect information on finite graphs of bounded structural complexity. It is a major open problem whether parity games with perfect information can be solved in PTIME. Restricting the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-03-03 Bernd Puchala , Roman Rabinovich

Noncooperative game theory provides a normative framework for analyzing strategic interactions. However, for the toolbox to be operational, the solutions it defines will have to be computed. In this paper, we provide a single reduction that…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2007-05-23 Vincent Conitzer , Tuomas Sandholm

Bloxorz is an online puzzle game where players move a 1 by 1 by 2 block by tilting it on a subset of the two dimensional grid. Bloxorz features switches that open and close trapdoors. The puzzle is to move the block from its initial…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2014-11-24 Tom C. van der Zanden , Hans L. Bodlaender

The Maker-Maker convention of positional games is played on a hypergraph whose edges are interpreted as winning sets. Two players take turns picking a previously unpicked vertex, aiming at being first to pick all the vertices of some edge.…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2025-04-22 Florian Galliot , Jonas Sénizergues

Even after the proposal of various solution algorithms, the precise computational complexity of checking whether a Conditional Temporal Network is Dynamically Controllable had still remained widely open. This issue gets settled in this…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2016-08-31 Massimo Cairo , Romeo Rizzi

We prove that path puzzles with complete row and column information--or equivalently, 2D orthogonal discrete tomography with Hamiltonicity constraint--are strongly NP-complete, ASP-complete, and #P-complete. Along the way, we newly…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2019-02-12 Jeffrey Bosboom , Erik D. Demaine , Martin L. Demaine , Adam Hesterberg , Roderick Kimball , Justin Kopinsky

In this paper we introduce polytopal stochastic games, an extension of two-player, zero-sum, turn-based stochastic games, in which we may have uncertainty over the transition probabilities. In these games the uncertainty over the…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2025-02-26 Pablo F. Castro , Pedro D'Argenio

We study the game of Dots-and-Boxes from a statistical point of view. The early game can be treated as a case of Random Sequential Adsorption, with a jamming transition that marks the beginning of the end-game. We derive set of differential…

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks · Physics 2009-11-07 Richard Metzler , Andreas Engel

We present a PSPACE algorithm that decides satisfiability of the graded modal logic Gr(K_R)---a natural extension of propositional modal logic K_R by counting expressions---which plays an important role in the area of knowledge…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2007-05-23 Stephan Tobies

In this paper we first define a new kind of potential games, called coset weighted potential game, which is a generalized form of weighted potential game. Using semi-tensor product of matrices, an algebraic method is provided to verify…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-03-01 Yuanhua Wang , Daizhan Cheng

The main result of this paper is that computing the value of a one-clock priced timed game (OCPTG) is PSPACE-hard. Along the way, we provide a family of OCPTGs that have an exponential number of event points. Both results hold even in very…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-03-06 John Fearnley , Rasmus Ibsen-Jensen , Rahul Savani

Negotiations, a model of concurrency with multi party negotiation as primitive, have been recently introduced by J. Desel and J. Esparza. We initiate the study of games for this model. We study coalition problems: can a given coalition of…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2015-09-25 Philipp Hoffmann

We explain a highly efficient algorithm for playing the simplest type of dots and boxes endgame optimally (by which we mean "in such a way so as to maximise the number of boxes that you take"). The algorithm is sufficiently simple that it…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-05-19 Kevin Buzzard , Michael Ciere