Related papers: A Random Card Shuffling Process

We study the convergence rate to stationarity for a class of exchangeable partition-valued Markov chains called cut-and-paste chains. The law governing the transitions of a cut-and-paste chain are determined by products of i.i.d. stochastic…

In order to analyze the effect of chaos or order on the rate of decoherence in a subsystem, we aim to distinguish effects of the two types of dynamics by choosing initial states as random product states from two factor spaces representing…

We study sorting by queues that can rearrange their content by applying permutations from a predefined set. These new sorting devices are called shuffle queues and we investigate those of them corresponding to sets of permutations defining…

Assume that letters (from a finite alphabet) in a text form a Markov chain. We track two distinct words, $U$ and $D$. A gambler gains 1 point for each occurrence of $U$ (including overlapping occurrences) and loses 1 point for each…

We introduce a variation of strong stationary times for random walks on the symmetric group. Rather than proceed in the usual fashion of accumulating larger and larger blocks of cards which may be in any order, we wait for pairs of cards to…

Consider a system of \(n\) players in which each initially starts on a different team. At each time step, we select an individual winner and an individual loser randomly and the loser joins the winner's team. The resulting Markov chain and…

In this paper, we introduce a graph coloring game called the Edge-Distinguishing Game (EDGe). The edge-distinguishing chromatic number of a graph is used to determine the moves each player can make. We determine which player has a winning…

We describe an exact approach for calculating transition probabilities and waiting times in finite-state discrete-time Markov processes. All the states and the rules for transitions between them must be known in advance. We can then…

The input to the token swapping problem is a graph with vertices $v_1, v_2, \ldots, v_n$, and $n$ tokens with labels $1, 2, \ldots, n$, one on each vertex. The goal is to get token $i$ to vertex $v_i$ for all $i= 1, \ldots, n$ using a…

In Texas hold'em, after an all-in bet is made and called before the flop, the turn, or the river, the two players sometimes agree to run it $n$ times, meaning that the remaining five, two, or one cards are dealt out not just once but $n$…

In this paper, we propose a new Markov chain which generalizes random-to-random shuffling on permutations to random-to-random shuffling on linear extensions of a finite poset of size $n$. We conjecture that the second largest eigenvalue of…

We consider a graph coloring algorithm that processes vertices in order taken uniformly at random and assigns colors to them using First-Fit strategy. We show that this algorithm uses, in expectation, at most $(1 + o(1))\cdot \ln n \,/\,…

We study the "top-to-random-and-reverse shuffle", defined as the top-to-random shuffle in the symmetric group algebra composed with the permutation $w_0$ (which sends each $i$ to $n+1-i$). More generally, we analyze the composition of any…

This paper investigates the different effects of chaotic switching on Parrondo's games, as compared to random and periodic switching. The rate of winning of Parrondo's games with chaotic switching depends on coefficient(s) defining the…

In this paper we study a cooperative card game called Hanabi from the viewpoint of algorithmic combinatorial game theory. In Hanabi, each card has one among $c$ colors and a number between $1$ and $n$. The aim is to make, for each color, a…

In trick-taking card games, a two-step process of state sampling and evaluation is widely used to approximate move values. While the evaluation component is vital, the accuracy of move value estimates is also fundamentally linked to how…

The goal of this Random Walks project is to code and experiment the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method for the problem of graph coloring. In this report, we present the plots of cost function \(\mathbf{H}\) by varying the parameters…

We use coupling to study the time taken until the distribution of a statistic on a Markov chain is close to its stationary distribution. Coupling is a common technique used to obtain upper bounds on mixing times of Markov chains, and we…

Given a positive integer $n$, consider a random permutation $\tau$ of the set $\{1,2,\ldots, n\}$. In $\tau$, we look for sequences of consecutive integers that appear in adjacent positions: a maximal such a sequence is called a block. Each…

The Game of Poker Chips, Dominoes and Survival fosters team building and high level cooperation in large groups, and is a tool applied in management training exercises. Each player, initially given two colored poker chips, is allowed to…