Related papers: Variations of a Coin-Removal Problem
We study the computational complexity of universality and inclusion problems for unambiguous finite automata and context-free grammars. We observe that several such problems can be reduced to the universality problem for unambiguous…
The toss of a coin is usually regarded as the epitome of randomness, and has been used for ages as a means to resolve disputes in a simple, fair way. Perhaps as ancient as consulting objects such as coins and dice is the art of maliciously…
This paper examines a way to simplify the circuit of quantum random walk search algorithm, when the traversing coin is constructed by both generalized Householder reflection and an additional phase multiplier. If an appropriate relation…
In this paper we give a mathematical model for a game that we call picture cube puzzle and investigate its properties. The central question is the number of moves required to solve the puzzle. A mathematical discussion is followed by the…
We study the cutoff phenomenon for generalized riffle shuffles where, at each step, the deck of cards is cut into a random number of packs of multinomial sizes which are then riffled together.
The multiway-cut problem is, given a weighted graph and k >= 2 terminal nodes, to find a minimum-weight set of edges whose removal separates all the terminals. The problem is NP-hard, and even NP-hard to approximate within 1+delta for some…
We derive a recursive formula for the moments of the number of flips using a possibly biased coin to produce a prescribed finite binary string $S$ when $S$ is either a run of heads or a run of heads followed by a tails. Our recursive…
The Two-dimensional Bin Packing Problem calls for packing a set of rectangular items into a minimal set of larger rectangular bins. Items must be packed with their edges parallel to the borders of the bins, cannot be rotated and cannot…
We study the problem of learning a most biased coin among a set of coins by tossing the coins adaptively. The goal is to minimize the number of tosses until we identify a coin i* whose posterior probability of being most biased is at least…
Edge-matching problems, also called edge matching puzzles, are abstractions of placement problems with neighborhood conditions. Pieces with colored edges have to be placed on a board such that adjacent edges have the same color. The problem…
The Minimum Coloring Cut Problem is defined as follows: given a connected graph G with colored edges, find an edge cut E' of G (a minimal set of edges whose removal renders the graph disconnected) such that the number of colors used by the…
We discuss the frequent pattern mining problem in a general setting. From an analysis of abstract representations, summarization and frequent pattern mining, we arrive at a generalization of the problem. Then, we show how the problem can be…
We revisit the game in which each of several players chooses a pattern and then a coin is flipped repeatedly until one of these patterns is generated. In particular, we demonstrate how to compute the probability of any one player winning…
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…
We study the problem of cutting a length-$n$ string of positive real numbers into $k$ pieces so that every piece has sum at least $b$. The problem can also be phrased as transforming such a string into a new one by merging adjacent numbers.…
We introduce a new type of coin: \textit{the alternator}. The alternator can pretend to be either a real or a fake coin (which is lighter than a real one). Each time it is put on a balance scale it switches between pretending to be either a…
Consider the coupon collector problem where each box of a brand of cereal contains a coupon and there are n different types of coupons. Suppose that the probability of a box containing a coupon of a specific type is $1/n$ and that we keep…
Symmetry is an important problem in many combinatorial problems. One way of dealing with symmetry is to add constraints that eliminate symmetric solutions. We survey recent results in this area, focusing especially on two common and useful…
We analyze the computational complexity of the problem of deciding whether, for a given simple game, there exists the possibility of rearranging the participants in a set of $j$ given losing coalitions into a set of $j$ winning coalitions.…
The branch displacement problem is a well-known problem in assembler design. It revolves around the feature, present in several processor families, of having different instructions, of different sizes, for jumps of different displacements.…