Reversible peg solitaire on graphs
Abstract
The game of peg solitaire on graphs was introduced by Beeler and Hoilman in 2011. In this game, pegs are initially placed on all but one vertex of a graph . If forms a path in and there are pegs on vertices and but not , then a {\em jump} places a peg on and removes the pegs from and . A graph is called solvable if, for some configuration of pegs occupying all but one vertex, some sequence of jumps leaves a single peg. We study the game of {\em reversible peg solitaire}, where there are again initially pegs on all but one vertex, but now both jumps and unjumps (the reversal of a jump) are allowed. We show that in this game all non-star graphs that contain a vertex of degree at least three are solvable, that cycles and paths on vertices, where is divisible by or , are solvable, and that all other graphs are not solvable. We also classify the possible starting hole and ending peg positions for solvable graphs.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1410.3796,
title = {Reversible peg solitaire on graphs},
author = {John Engbers and Christopher Stocker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1410.3796},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
9 pages, 4 figures. This version includes a title change, minor edits based on referee comments, and a classification of starting hole and ending peg locations. To appear in Discrete Math