Related papers: When Rooks Miss: Probability through Chess
We consider a natural model of random knotting- choose a knot diagram at random from the finite set of diagrams with n crossings. We tabulate diagrams with 10 and fewer crossings and classify the diagrams by knot type, allowing us to…
We offer theoretical explanations for some recent observations in numerical simulations of quantum random walks (QRW). Specifically, in the case of a QRW on the line with one particle (walker) and two entangled coins, we explain the…
In this article the idea of random variables over the set theoretic universe is investigated. We explore what it can mean for a random set to have a specific probability of belonging to an antecedently given class of sets.
Assume that $n = 2k$ potential roommates each have an ordered preference of the $n-1$ others. A stable matching is a perfect matching of the $n$ roommates in which no two unmatched people prefer each other to their matched partners. In…
Stability is a central property in learning and statistics promising the output of an algorithm $A$ does not change substantially when applied to similar datasets $S$ and $S'$. It is an elementary fact that any sufficiently stable algorithm…
Suppose Alice has a coin with heads probability $q$ and Bob has one with heads probability $p>q$. Now each of them will toss their coin $n$ times, and Alice will win iff she gets more heads than Bob does. Evidently the game favors Bob, but…
We revisit the problem of selecting an item from $n$ choices that appear before us in random sequential order so as to minimize the expected rank of the item selected. In particular, we examine the stopping rule where we reject the first…
Suppose we have $n$ dice, each with $s$ faces (assume $s\geq n$). On the first turn, roll all of them, and remove from play those that rolled an $n$. Roll all of the remaining dice. In general, if at a certain turn you are left with $k$…
Let a deck of n cards be shuffled by successively exchanging the cards in positions 1, 2, ..., n with cards in randomly chosen positions. We show that for n equal to 18 or greater, the identity permutation is the most likely. We prove a…
We study linear chance-constrained problems where the coefficients follow a Gaussian mixture distribution. We provide mixed-binary quadratic programs that give inner and outer approximations of the chance constraint based on piecewise…
Consider a universal Turing machine that produces a partial or total function (or a binary stream), based on the answers to the binary queries that it makes during the computation. We study the probability that the machine will produce a…
The n-queens puzzle is a well-known combinatorial problem that requires to place n queens on an n x n chessboard so that no two queens can attack each other. Since the 19th century, this problem was studied by many mathematicians and…
The stable roommates problem with $n$ agents has worst case complexity $O(n^2)$ in time and space. Random instances can be solved faster and with less memory, however. We introduce an algorithm that has average time and space complexity…
Let $M_n$ be an $n$ by $n$ random matrix where each entry is +1 or -1 independently with probability 1/2. Our main result implies that the probability that $M_n$ is singular is at most $(1/\sqrt{2} + o(1))^n$, improving on the previous best…
Break a stick at random at $n-1$ points to obtain $n$ pieces. We give an explicit formula for the probability that every choice of $k$ segments from this broken stick can form a $k$-gon, generalizing similar work. The method we use can be…
For a random variable $N = 0, 1, 2, \ldots$ we study the following question: When does the sum of $N$ many independent and identically distributed copies of a random variable $X$ have the same law a a nontrivial rescaling of $X$? We show…
Stirling permutations are parking functions, and we investigate two parking function statistics in the context of these objects: lucky cars and displacement. Among our results, we consider two extreme cases: extremely lucky Stirling…
We introduce and study Maker/Breaker-type positional games on random graphs. Our main concern is to determine the threshold probability $p_{F}$ for the existence of Maker's strategy to claim a member of $F$ in the unbiased game played on…
Conditions on sure-success decidability of weights of Boolean functions are presented for a given number of generalized Grover iterations. It is shown that the decidability problem reduces to a system of algebraic equations of a single…
The randomized $k$-number partitioning problem is the task to distribute $N$ i.i.d. random variables into $k$ groups in such a way that the sums of the variables in each group are as similar as possible. The restricted $k$-partitioning…