Related papers: The Most Malicious Ma\^{i}tre D'

In 1967, Klarner proposed a problem concerning the existence of reflecting $n$-queens configurations. The problem considers the feasibility of placing $n$ mutually non-attacking queens on the reflecting chessboard, an $n\times n$ chessboard…

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…

This paper investigates the problem of synthesizing proactive defense systems in which the defender can allocate deceptive targets and modify the cost of actions for the attacker who aims to compromise security assets in this system. We…

We address the problem of enumeration of seating arrangements of married couples around a circular table such that no spouses sit next to each other and no k consecutive persons are of the same gender. While the case of k=2 corresponds to…

In this paper we are going to solve an open problem about the game tetris. We are going to give the first results in the complexity of a variant of offline tetris introduced by Erik Demaine, Susan Hohenberger and David Liben Nowell in their…

Translated from the Latin original, "De numeris amicabilibus" (1747). E100 in the Enestroem index. Euler starts by saying that with the success of mathematical analysis, number theory has been neglected. He argues that number theory is…

In many covering settings, it is natural to consider the presence both of elements that we seek to include and of elements that we seek to avoid. This paper introduces a novel combinatorial problem formalizing this tradeoff: from a…

The objective of the KPR agents are to learn themselves in the minimum (learning) time to have maximum success or utilization probability ($f$). A dictator can easily solve the problem with $f = 1$ in no time, by asking every one to form a…

We introduce a problem set-up we call the Iterated Matching Pennies (IMP) game and show that it is a powerful framework for the study of three problems: adversarial learnability, conventional (i.e., non-adversarial) learnability and…

This paper addresses the problem of learning to sparsify stochastic linear bandits, where a decision-maker sequentially selects actions from a high-dimensional space subject to a sparsity constraint on the number of nonzero elements in the…

We study the problem of nonstochastic bandits with expert advice, extending the setting from finitely many experts to any countably infinite set: A learner aims to maximize the total reward by taking actions sequentially based on bandit…

In mathematical optimization, we want to find the best possible solution for a decision-making problem. Curiously, these problems are harder to solve if they have discrete decisions. Imagine that you would like to buy chocolate: you can buy…

In 1907, Henry Ernest Dudeney posed a puzzle: ``cut any equilateral triangle \dots\ into as few pieces as possible that will fit together and form a perfect square'' (without overlap, via translation and rotation). Four weeks later, Dudeney…

The Sleeping Beauty problem is a problem of imperfect recall that has received considerable attention. One approach to solving the Sleeping Beauty problem is to allow Sleeping Beauty to make decisions based on her beliefs, and then…

The McNaughton-Zielonka divide et impera algorithm is the simplest and most flexible approach available in the literature for determining the winner in a parity game. Despite its theoretical worst-case complexity and the negative reputation…

In the multiarmed bandit problem a gambler chooses an arm of a slot machine to pull considering a tradeoff between exploration and exploitation. We study the stochastic bandit problem where each arm has a reward distribution supported in a…

The profitable tour problem (PTP) is a well-known NP-hard routing problem searching for a tour visiting a subset of customers while maximizing profit as the difference between total revenue collected and traveling costs. PTP is known to be…

This work investigates the online machine learning problem of prediction with expert advice in an adversarial setting through numerical analysis of, and experiments with, a related partial differential equation. The problem is a repeated…

In the Penney-Ante game, Player I chooses a head/tail string of a predetermined length $n\ge3$. Player II, upon seeing Player I's choice, chooses another head/tail string of the same length. A coin is then tossed repeatedly and the player…

We consider the Bilevel Knapsack with Interdiction Constraints, an extension of the classic 0-1 knapsack problem formulated as a Stackelberg game with two agents, a leader and a follower, that choose items from a common set and hold their…