Related papers: Optimal rolling of fair dice using fair coins
How to turn the flip of a coin into a random variable whose expected value equals a scattering amplitude? We answer this question by constructing a numerical algorithm to evaluate curve integrals - a novel formulation of scattering…
Die-rolling is the cryptographic task where two mistrustful, remote parties wish to generate a random $D$-sided die-roll over a communication channel. Optimal quantum protocols for this task have been given by Aharon and Silman (New Journal…
The takeoff point for this paper is the voluminous body of literature addressing recursive betting games with expected logarithmic growth of wealth being the performance criterion. Whereas almost all existing papers involve use of linear…
What is the number of rolls of fair 6-sided dice until the first time the total sum of all rolls is a prime? We compute the expectation and the variance of this random variable up to an additive error of less than 10^{-4}. This is a…
Randomized rankings have been of recent interest to achieve ex-ante fairer exposure and better robustness than deterministic rankings. We propose a set of natural axioms for randomized group-fair rankings and prove that there exists a…
For the fundamental problem of allocating a set of resources among individuals with varied preferences, the quality of an allocation relates to the degree of fairness and the collective welfare achieved. Unfortunately, in many…
The $k$-center problem requires the selection of $k$ points (centers) from a given metric pointset $W$ so to minimize the maximum distance of any point of $W$ from the closest center. This paper focuses on a fair variant of the problem,…
Random selection, leader election, and collective coin flipping are fundamental tasks in fault-tolerant distributed computing. We study these problems in the full-information model where despite decades of study, key gaps remain in our…
Fueled by massive data, important decision making is being automated with the help of algorithms, therefore, fairness in algorithms has become an especially important research topic. In this work, we design new streaming and distributed…
Consider a coin tossing experiment which consists of tossing one of two coins at a time, according to a renewal process. The first coin is fair and the second has probability $1/2 + \theta$, $\theta \in [-1/2,1/2]$, $\theta$ unknown but…
An algorithm for sampling exactly from the normal distribution is given. The algorithm reads some number of uniformly distributed random digits in a given base and generates an initial portion of the representation of a normal deviate in…
How many fair coin tosses to choose 1 of $n$ options with uniform probability? Although a probability problem, the solution is essentially number-theoretic, with special roles for Mersenne numbers, Fermat numbers, and the haupt exponent. We…
A simple computer-based algorithm has been developed to identify pre-modern coins minted from the same dies, intending mainly coins minted by hand-made dies designed to be applicable to images taken from auction websites or catalogs. Though…
Two possibly unfair $n$-sided dice, both labelled $1, 2, \ldots, n$, are rolled, and the sum is recorded. How should the dice's sides be weighted so that the resulting sum is closest to the uniform distribution on $2, 3, \ldots, 2n$? We…
Algorithmic fairness has become a central concern in modern machine learning and AI applications. However, two pressing challenges remain: (1) The fairness guarantees of existing methods often rely on specific data distributional…
We study the expected number of rolls required for the cumulative sum of a fair six-sided die to first enter a prescribed target set $H\subset\mathbb{Z}_{\ge0}$. A one-variable dynamic-programming formulation is introduced that removes…
Faced with a sequence of N binary events, such as coin flips (or Ising spins), it is natural to ask whether these events reflect some underlying dynamic signals or are just random. Plausible models for the dynamics of hidden biases lead to…
For sequential betting games, Kelly's theory, aimed at maximization of the logarithmic growth of one's account value, involves optimization of the so-called betting fraction $K$. In this Letter, we extend the classical formulation to allow…
The celebrated minimax principle of Yao (1977) says that for any Boolean-valued function $f$ with finite domain, there is a distribution $\mu$ over the domain of $f$ such that computing $f$ to error $\epsilon$ against inputs from $\mu$ is…
This article studies the fundamental problem of using i.i.d. coin tosses from an entropy source to efficiently generate random variables $X_i \sim P_i$ $(i \ge 1)$, where $(P_1, P_2, \dots)$ is a random sequence of rational discrete…