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This paper considers the classic Online Steiner Forest problem where one is given a (weighted) graph $G$ and an arbitrary set of $k$ terminal pairs $\{\{s_1,t_1\},\ldots ,\{s_k,t_k\}\}$ that are required to be connected. The goal is to…
We propose a class of two person perfect information games based on weighted graphs. One of these games can be described in terms of a round pizza which is cut radially into pieces of varying size. The two players alternately take pieces…
We analyze greedy routing in a random graph G_n constructed on the vertex set V = {1, 2, ..., n} embedded in Z. Vertices are inserted according to a uniform random permutation pi, and each newly inserted vertex connects to its nearest…
Non-ergodic convergence of learning dynamics in games is widely studied recently because of its importance in both theory and practice. Recent work (Cai et al., 2024) showed that a broad class of learning dynamics, including Optimistic…
The semirandom graph process constructs a graph $G$ in a series of rounds, starting with the empty graph on $n$ vertices. In each round, a player is offered a vertex $v$ chosen uniformly at random, and chooses an edge on $v$ to add to $G$.…
The $n$-queens puzzle is to place $n$ mutually non-attacking queens on an $n \times n$ chessboard. We present a simple two stage randomized algorithm to construct such configurations. In the first stage, a random greedy algorithm constructs…
Greedy algorithms have long been a workhorse for learning graphical models, and more broadly for learning statistical models with sparse structure. In the context of learning directed acyclic graphs, greedy algorithms are popular despite…
In the online Steiner tree problem, a sequence of points is revealed one-by-one: when a point arrives, we only have time to add a single edge connecting this point to the previous ones, and we want to minimize the total length of edges…
In recommender system or crowdsourcing applications of online learning, a human's preferences or abilities are often a function of the algorithm's recent actions. Motivated by this, a significant line of work has formalized settings where…
We study the Torus Puzzle, a solitaire game in which the elements of an input $m \times n$ matrix need to be rearranged into a target configuration via a sequence of unit rotations (i.e., circular shifts) of rows and/or columns. Amano et…
We consider the problem of embedding the Steiner points of a Steiner tree with given topology into the rectilinear plane. Thereby, the length of the path between a distinguished terminal and each other terminal must not exceed given length…
Pebble games are popular models for analyzing time-space trade-offs. In particular, the reversible pebble game is often applied in quantum algorithms like Grover's search to efficiently simulate classical computation on inputs in…
A graph drawing is $\textit{greedy}$ if, for every ordered pair of vertices $(x,y)$, there is a path from $x$ to $y$ such that the Euclidean distance to $y$ decreases monotonically at every vertex of the path. Greedy drawings support a…
We revisit a classical crossword filling puzzle which already appeared in Garey\&Jonhson's book. We are given a grid with $n$ vertical and horizontal slots and a dictionary with $m$ words and are asked to place words from the dictionary in…
Scale-invariance in games has recently emerged as a widely valued desirable property. Yet, almost all fast convergence guarantees in learning in games require prior knowledge of the utility scale. To address this, we develop learning…
This paper presents a general framework for generating greedy algorithms for solving convex constraint satisfaction problems for sparse solutions by mapping the satisfaction problem into one of graph traversal on a rooted tree of unknown…
Policy evaluation in reinforcement learning is often conducted using two-timescale stochastic approximation, which results in various gradient temporal difference methods such as GTD(0), GTD2, and TDC. Here, we provide convergence rate…
Greedy-GQ with linear function approximation, originally proposed in \cite{maei2010toward}, is a value-based off-policy algorithm for optimal control in reinforcement learning, and it has a non-linear two timescale structure with the…
The Path Contraction and Cycle Contraction problems take as input an undirected graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, $m$ edges and an integer $k$ and determine whether one can obtain a path or a cycle, respectively, by performing at most $k$ edge…
We present a continuous-space version of Infotaxis, a search algorithm where a searcher greedily moves to maximize the gain in information about the position of the target to be found. Using a combination of analytical and numerical tools…