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We analyze Solo Chess puzzles, where the input is an $n \times n$ board containing some standard Chess pieces of the same color, and the goal is to make a sequence of capture moves to reduce down to a single piece. Prior work analyzes this…
We study the query complexity of a permutation-based variant of the guessing game Mastermind. In this variant, the secret is a pair $(z,\pi)$ which consists of a binary string $z \in \{0,1\}^n$ and a permutation $\pi$ of $[n]$. The secret…
Together with a characteristic function, idempotent permutations uniquely determine idempotent maps, as well as their linearly ordered arrangement simultaneously. Furthermore, in-place linear time transformations are possible between them.…
We consider inapproximability of the correlation clustering problem defined as follows: Given a graph $G = (V,E)$ where each edge is labeled either "+" (similar) or "-" (dissimilar), correlation clustering seeks to partition the vertices…
Constraint programming (CP) is a powerful tool for modeling mathematical concepts and objects and finding both solutions or counter examples. One of the major strengths of CP is that problems can easily be combined or expanded. In this…
We study the problem of sorting under incomplete information, when queries are used to resolve uncertainties. Each of $n$ data items has an unknown value, which is known to lie in a given interval. We can pay a query cost to learn the…
We consider the problems of finding optimal identifying codes, (open) locating-dominating sets and resolving sets of an interval or a permutation graph. In these problems, one asks to find a subset of vertices, normally called a…
Given a graph where every vertex has exactly one labeled token, how can we most quickly execute a given permutation on the tokens? In (sequential) token swapping, the goal is to use the shortest possible sequence of swaps, each of which…
We provide a simple and natural solution to the problem of generating all $2^n \cdot n!$ signed permutations of $[n] = \{1,2,\ldots,n\}$. Our solution provides a pleasing generalization of the most famous ordering of permutations: plain…
The identification of repeating patterns in discrete grids is rudimentary within symbolic reasoning, algorithm synthesis and structural optimization across diverse computational domains. Although statistical approaches targeting noisy data…
We consider the problem of factoring permutations as a product of special types of transpositions, namely, those transpositions involving two positions with bounded distances. In particular, we investigate the minimum number, $\delta$, such…
Given a graph, we associate each edge with the transposition which exchanges the endvertices. Fixing a linear order on the edge set, we obtain a permutation of the vertices. D\'enes proved that the permutation is a full cyclic permutation…
A square matrix of order $n$ with $n\geq 2$ is called a \textit{permutative matrix} or permutative when all its rows (up to the first one) are permutations of precisely its first row. In this paper, the spectra of a class of permutative…
Puzzle solving is a combinatorial challenge due to the difficulty of matching adjacent pieces. Instead, we infer a mental image from all pieces, which a given piece can then be matched against avoiding the combinatorial explosion.…
Let $G$ be a graph that admits a perfect matching. A {\sf forcing set} for a perfect matching $M$ of $G$ is a subset $S$ of $M$, such that $S$ is contained in no other perfect matching of $G$. This notion originally arose in chemistry in…
We analyze a directed variation of the book embedding problem when the page partition is prespecified and the nodes on the spine must be in topological order (upward book embedding). Given a directed acyclic graph and a partition of its…
We formalize symmetry breaking as a set-covering problem. For the case of breaking symmetries on graphs, a permutation covers a graph if applying it to the graph yields a smaller graph in a given order. Canonical graphs are those that…
Balliu et al. (DISC 2020) classified the hardness of solving binary labeling problems with distributed graph algorithms; in these problems the task is to select a subset of edges in a $2$-colored tree in which white nodes of degree $d$ and…
A sliding puzzle is a combination puzzle where a player slide pieces along certain routes on a board to reach a certain end-configuration. In this paper, we propose a novel measurement of complexity of massive sliding puzzles with…
Consider a finite sequence of permutations of the elements 1,...,n, with the property that each element changes its position by at most 1 from any permutation to the next. We call such a sequence a tangle, and we define a move of element i…