Related papers: A Random Card Shuffling Process

A random walk is a basic stochastic process on graphs and a key primitive in the design of distributed algorithms. One of the most important features of random walks is that, under mild conditions, they converge to a stationary distribution…

We consider a Markov chain on invertible $n\times n$ matrices with entries in $\mathbb{Z}_2$ which moves by picking an ordered pair of distinct rows and add the first one to the other, modulo $2$. We establish a logarithmic Sobolev…

Markov chains are an important example for a course on stochastic processes because simple board games can be used to illustrate the fundamental concepts. For example, a looping board game (like Monopoly) consists of all recurrent states,…

We study a family of maps from $S_n \to S_n$ we call fixed point homing shuffles. These maps generalize a few known problems such as Conway's Topswops, and a card shuffling process studied by Gweneth McKinley. We show that the iterates of…

We consider the chromatic number of the random Borsuk graph. The random Borsuk graph is obtained by sampling $n$ points i.i.d. uniformly at random on the $d$-dimensional sphere $S^d$, and joining a pair of points by an edge whenever their…

A rainbow stacking of $r$-edge-colorings $\chi_1, \ldots, \chi_m$ of the complete graph on $n$ vertices is a way of superimposing $\chi_1, \ldots, \chi_m$ so that no edges of the same color are superimposed on each other. We determine a…

The network coloring game has been proposed in the literature of social sciences as a model for conflict-resolution circumstances. The players of the game are the vertices of a graph with $n$ vertices and maximum degree $\Delta$. The game…

We study poker hand rankings in the partially generalised setting of a deck with $r$ ranks, rather than the typical 13 ranks. We provide the hand rankings for all $r$ and observe some interesting phenomena such as the smallest $r$ such that…

In the natural generalization of tic-tac-toe to an $n \times n \times n$ board where $n \in \mathbb{N}$, it is known that the first player has a winning strategy if $n \leq 4$ and that either player can force a draw if $n \geq 8$. The…

Coloring games are combinatorial games where the players alternate painting uncolored vertices of a graph one of $k > 0$ colors. Each different ruleset specifies that game's coloring constraints. This paper investigates six impartial…

We study the problem of approximately counting the number of list packings of a graph. The analogous problem for usual vertex coloring and list coloring has attracted a lot of attention. For list packing the setup is similar but we seek a…

We consider the following game that has been used as a way of testing claims of extrasensory perception (ESP). One is given a deck of $mn$ cards comprised of $n$ distinct types each of which appears exactly $m$ times: this deck is shuffled…

We consider a family of card shuffles of $n$ cards in which the allowed moves involve transpositions corresponding to the Jucys--Murphy elements of the symmetric group $\{S_m\}_{m \leq n}$. We determine the eigenvalues of the corresponding…

In this paper we study the mixing time of a biased transpositions shuffle on a set of $N$ cards with $N/2$ cards of two types. For a parameter $0<a \le 1$, one type of card is chosen to transpose with a bias of $\frac{a}{N}$ and the other…

Consider the following experiment: a deck with $m$ copies of $n$ different card types is randomly shuffled, and a guesser attempts to guess the cards sequentially as they are drawn. Each time a guess is made, some amount of "feedback" is…

This paper introduces the Attracting Random Walks model, which describes the dynamics of a system of particles on a graph with $n$ vertices. At each step, a single particle moves to an adjacent vertex (or stays at the current one) with…

We consider a Piecewise Deterministic Markov Process given by random switching between finitely many vector fields vanishing at $0$. It has been shown recently that the behaviour of this process is mainly determined by the signs of Lyapunov…

The generation of random graphs using edge swaps provides a reliable method to draw uniformly random samples of sets of graphs respecting some simple constraints, e.g. degree distributions. However, in general, it is not necessarily…

Let $X=(V,E)$ be a finite simple connected graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges. A configuration is an assignment of one of two colors, black or white, to each edge of $X.$ A move applied to a configuration is to select a black edge…

In this note, we investigate combinatorial games where both players move randomly (each turn, independently selecting a legal move uniformly at random). In this model, we provide closed-form expressions for the expected number of turns in a…