Related papers: Pushing Blocks by Sweeping Lines
The sparse matrix compression problem asks for a one-dimensional representation of a binary $n \times \ell$ matrix, formed by an integer array of row indices and a shift function for each row, such that accessing a matrix entry is possible…
An $(n_k)$ configuration is a set of $n$ points and $n$ lines such that each point lies on $k$ lines while each line contains $k$ points. The configuration is geometric, topological, or combinatorial depending on whether lines are…
Given a series of photographs taken during a Go game, we describe the techniques we successfully employ for pinpointing the grid lines of the Go board and for tracking their small movements between consecutive photographs; then we discuss…
Sampling permutations from S_n is a fundamental problem from probability theory. The nearest neighbor transposition chain \cal{M}}_{nn} is known to converge in time \Theta(n^3 \log n) in the uniform case and time \Theta(n^2) in the constant…
We prove that the 2017 puzzle game ZHED is NP-complete, even with just 1 tiles. Such a puzzle is defined by a set of unit-square 1 tiles in a square grid, and a target square of the grid. A move consists of selecting an unselected 1 tile…
We propose a natural process for allocating n balls into n bins that are organized as the vertices of an undirected graph G. Each ball first chooses a vertex u in G uniformly at random. Then the ball performs a local search in G starting…
In geographic information systems and in the production of digital maps for small devices with restricted computational resources one often wants to round coordinates to a rougher grid. This removes unnecessary detail and reduces space…
We analyze the two-player game of Knock 'em Down, asymptotically as the number of tokens to be knocked down becomes large. Optimal play requires mixed strategies with deviations of order sqrt(n) from the naive law-of-large numbers…
Consider N equally-spaced points on a circle of circumference N. Choose at random n points out of $N$ on this circle and append clockwise an arc of integral length k to each such point. The resulting random set is made of a random number of…
A stacking operation adds a $d$-simplex on top of a facet of a simplicial $d$-polytope while maintaining the convexity of the polytope. A stacked $d$-polytope is a polytope that is obtained from a $d$-simplex and a series of stacking…
We investigate motion planning algorithms for the assembly of shapes in the \emph{tilt model} in which unit-square tiles move in a grid world under the influence of uniform external forces and self-assemble according to certain rules. We…
In this paper, we study the program-point reachability problem of concurrent pushdown systems that communicate via unbounded and unordered message buffers. Our goal is to relax the common restriction that messages can only be retrieved by a…
Many problems in scientific and engineering applications contain sparse matrices or graphs as main input objects, e.g. numerical simulations on meshes. Large inputs are abundant these days and require parallel processing for memory size and…
Matrices with the displacement structures of circulant, Toeplitz, and Hankel types as well as matrices with structures generalizing these types are omnipresent in computations of sciences and engineering. In this paper, we present efficient…
We consider a card guessing game with complete feedback. An ordered deck of $n$ cards labeled $1$ up to $n$ is shelf-shuffled exactly one time. One after the other a single card is drawn from the shuffled deck. The guesser makes has guess…
In this paper,we study spatial central configurations where N bodies are at the vertices of a regular N-gon $T$ and the other 4 bodies are symmetrically located on the straight line that is perpendicular to the plane that contains $T$ and…
We study a popular puzzle game known variously as Clickomania and Same Game. Basically, a rectangular grid of blocks is initially colored with some number of colors, and the player repeatedly removes a chosen connected monochromatic group…
Packing problems, which ask how to arrange a collection of objects in space to meet certain criteria, are important in a great many physical and biological systems, where geometrical arrangements at small scales control behaviour at larger…
This article presents a novel and succinct algorithmic framework via alternating quantum walks, unifying quantum spatial search, state transfer and uniform sampling on a large class of graphs. Using the framework, we can achieve exact…
Here we introduce a new game on graphs, called cup stacking, following a line of what can be considered as $0$-, $1$-, or $2$-person games such as chip firing, percolation, graph burning, zero forcing, cops and robbers, graph pebbling, and…