Related papers: Permutations of counters on a table

In this paper we study combinatorial aspects of permutations of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ and related topics. In particular, we prove that there is a unique permutation $\pi$ of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ such that all the numbers $k+\pi(k)$ ($k=1,\ldots,n$)…

A general theory of permutation orbifolds is developed for arbitrary twist groups. Explicit expressions for the number of primaries, the partition function, the genus one characters, the matrix elements of modular transformations and for…

Knockout tournaments, also known as single-elimination or cup tournaments, are a popular form of sports competitions. In the standard probabilistic setting, for each pairing of players, one of the players wins the game with a certain (a…

We present a configuration called a magic permutohedron that shows the placement of the numbers of $\{1, 2, 3, \dots, 24\}$ in the vertices of the permutohedra so that the sum of numbers on each square side is 50 and the sum of the numbers…

We consider quantum XOR games, defined in [11], from the perspective of unitary correlations defined in [7]. We show that Connes' embedding problem has a positive answer if and only if every quantum XOR game has entanglement bias equal to…

Schmidt games and the Cantor winning property give alternative notions of largeness, similar to the more standard notions of measure and category. Being intuitive, flexible, and applicable to recent research made them an active object of…

The second author introduced with I. T\"orm\"a a two-player word-building game [Playing with Subshifts, Fund. Inform. 132 (2014), 131--152]. The game has a predetermined (possibly finite) choice sequence $\alpha_1$, $\alpha_2$, $\ldots$ of…

We introduce and analyze a natural game formulated as follows. In this one-person game, the player is given a random permutation $A=(a_1,\dots, a_n)$ of a multiset $M$ of $n$ reals that sum up to $0$, where each of the $n!$ permutation…

Toral (2002) considered an ensemble of N\geq2 players. In game B a player is randomly selected to play Parrondo's original capital-dependent game. In game A' two players are randomly selected without replacement, and the first transfers one…

Consider the following probability puzzle: A fair coin is flipped n times. For each HT in the resulting sequence, Bob gets a point, and for each HH Alice gets a point. Who is more likely to win? We provide a proof that Bob wins more often…

We initiate the study of simple games from the point of view of combinatorial topology. The starting premise is that the losing coalitions of a simple game can be identified with a simplicial complex. Various topological constructions and…

Let $G$ be a finite additive abelian group with exponent $n>1$, and let $a_1,\ldots,a_{n-1}\in G$. We show that there is a permutation $\sigma\in S_{n-1}$ such that all the elements $sa_{\sigma(s)}\ (s=1,\ldots,n-1)$ are nonzero if and only…

We modify Wythoff's game by allowing an additional move, which we call a "split", and show how the $P$-positions are coded by the Tribonacci word. We analyze the table of letter positions of arbitrary $k$-bonacci words and find a…

The game of best choice (also known as the secretary problem) is a model for sequential decision making with a long history and many variations. The classical setup assumes that the sequence of candidate rankings are uniformly distributed.…

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 $k$…

Parrondo's coin-tossing games comprise two games, $A$ and $B$. The result of game $A$ is determined by the toss of a fair coin. The result of game $B$ is determined by the toss of a $p_0$-coin if capital is a multiple of $r$, and by the…

In this paper, we address a natural question at the intersection of combinatorial game theory and computational complexity: "Can a sum of simple tepid games in canonical form be intractable?" To resolve this fundamental question, we…

Parrondo's Paradox arises when two losing games are combined to produce a winning one. A history dependent quantum Parrondo game is studied where the rotation operators that represent the toss of a classical biased coin are replaced by…

Given $n$ real numbers $0\leq x_1,...,x_n<1$ and a permutation~$\sigma$ of $\{1,...,n\}$, we can always find $\xbar_1,...,\xbar_n\in\{0,1\}$ so that the partial sums $\xbar_1+... +\xbar_k$ and $\xbar_{\sigma 1}+... +\xbar_{\sigma k}$ differ…

The number of $n \times n$ matrices whose entries are either -1, 0, or 1, whose row- and column- sums are all 1, and such that in every row and every column the non-zero entries alternate in sign, is proved to be $[1!4! >...…