English

A brief conversation about subtraction games

Combinatorics 2024-08-13 v2

Abstract

In this survey we revisit {\sc finite subtraction}, one-heap subtraction games on finite rulesets. The main purpose is to give a general overview of the development, and specifically to draw attention to Flammenkamp's thesis (1997), where he, contrary to other studies, experimentally observes exponential eventual period length of the outcomes, for a carefully selected subclass of games. In addition, we contribute an appendix on {\sc finite excluded subtraction} by Suetsugu.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.20054,
  title  = {A brief conversation about subtraction games},
  author = {Urban Larsson and Indrajit Saha},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.20054},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

15 pages, 2 figures, Appendix by Koki Suetsugu

R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:47:11.341Z