arXiv subjects

Cristopher Moore

Publications and source records attributed to Cristopher Moore.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2000

One-Dimensional Peg Solitaire, and Duotaire

We solve the problem of one-dimensional Peg Solitaire. In particular, we show that the set of configurations that can be reduced to a single peg forms a regular language, and that a linear-time algorithm exists for reducing any configuration to the minimum number of pegs. We then look at the impartial two-player game, proposed by Ravikumar, where two players take turns making peg moves, and whichever player is left without a move loses. We calculate some simple nim-values and discuss when the game separates into a disjunctive sum of smaller games. In the version where a series of hops can be made in a single move, we show that neither the P-positions nor the N-positions (i.e. wins for the previous or next player) are described by a regular or context-free language.

math.CO↗

arXiv2000

Who Wins Domineering on Rectangular Boards?

Using mostly elementary considerations, we find out who wins the game of Domineering on all rectangular boards of width 2, 3, 5, and 7. We obtain bounds on other boards as well, and prove the existence of polynomial-time strategies for playing on all boards of width 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11. We also comment briefly on toroidal and cylindrical boards.

math.CO↗

arXiv2000

One-Dimensional Peg Solitaire

We solve the problem of one-dimensional peg solitaire. In particular, we show that the set of configurations that can be reduced to a single peg forms a regular language, and that a linear-time algorithm exists for reducing any configuration to the minimum number of pegs.

math.CO↗

arXiv2000

Hard Tiling Problems with Simple Tiles

It is well-known that the question of whether a given finite region can be tiled with a given set of tiles is NP-complete. We show that the same is true for the right tromino and square tetromino on the square lattice, or for the right tromino alone. In the process, we show that Monotone 1-in-3 Satisfiability is NP-complete for planar cubic graphs. In higher dimensions, we show NP-completeness for the domino and straight tromino for general regions on the cubic lattice, and for simply-connected regions on the four-dimensional hypercubic lattice.

math.CO↗

arXiv2000

Exact solution of site and bond percolation on small-world networks

We study percolation on small-world networks, which has been proposed as a simple model of the propagation of disease. The occupation probabilities of sites and bonds correspond to the susceptibility of individuals to the disease and the transmissibility of the disease respectively. We give an exact solution of the model for both site and bond percolation, including the position of the percolation transition at which epidemic behavior sets in, the values of the two critical exponents governing this transition, and the mean and variance of the distribution of cluster sizes (disease outbreaks) below the transition.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2000

Epidemics and percolation in small-world networks

We study some simple models of disease transmission on small-world networks, in which either the probability of infection by a disease or the probability of its transmission is varied, or both. The resulting models display epidemic behavior when the infection or transmission probability rises above the threshold for site or bond percolation on the network, and we give exact solutions for the position of this threshold in a variety of cases. We confirm our analytic results by numerical simulation.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

Internal Diffusion-Limited Aggregation: Parallel Algorithms and Complexity

The computational complexity of internal diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) is examined from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. We show that for two or more dimensions, the problem of predicting the cluster from a given set of paths is complete for the complexity class CC, the subset of P characterized by circuits composed of comparator gates. CC-completeness is believed to imply that, in the worst case, growing a cluster of size n requires polynomial time in n even on a parallel computer. A parallel relaxation algorithm is presented that uses the fact that clusters are nearly spherical to guess the cluster from a given set of paths, and then corrects defects in the guessed cluster through a non-local annihilation process. The parallel running time of the relaxation algorithm for two-dimensional internal DLA is studied by simulating it on a serial computer. The numerical results are compatible with a running time that is either polylogarithmic in n or a small power of n. Thus the computational resources needed to grow large clusters are significantly less on average than the worst-case analysis would suggest. For a parallel machine with k processors, we show that random clusters in d dimensions can be generated in O((n/k + log k) n^{2/d}) steps. This is a significant speedup over explicit sequential simulation, which takes O(n^{1+2/d}) time on average. Finally, we show that in one dimension internal DLA can be predicted in O(log n) parallel time, and so is in the complexity class NC.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1999

Glassy dynamics and aging in an exactly solvable spin model

We introduce a simple two-dimensional spin model with short-range interactions which shows glassy behavior despite a Hamiltonian which is completely homogeneous and possesses no randomness. We solve exactly for both the static partition function of the model and the distribution of energy barriers, giving us the equilibration time-scales at low temperature. Simulations of instantaneous quenches and of annealing of the model are in good agreement with the analytic calculations. We also measure the two-time spin correlation as a function of waiting time, and show that the model has aging behavior consistent with the distribution of barrier heights. The model appears to have no sharp glass transition. Instead, it falls out of equilibrium at a temperature which decreases logarithmically as a function of the cooling time.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

The physical limits of communication

It has been well-known since the pioneering work of Claude Shannon in the 1940s that a message transmitted with optimal efficiency over a channel of limited bandwidth is indistinguishable from random noise to a receiver who is unfamiliar with the language in which the message is written. In this letter we demonstrate an equivalent result about electromagnetic transmissions. We show that when electromagnetic radiation is used as the transmission medium, the most information-efficient format for a given message is indistinguishable from black-body radiation to a receiver who is unfamiliar with that format. The characteristic temperature of the radiation is set by the amount of energy used to make the transmission. If information is not encoded in the direction of the radiation, but only its timing, energy or polarization, then the most efficient format has the form of a one-dimensional black-body spectrum which is easily distinguished from the three-dimensional case.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

Some Polyomino Tilings of the Plane

We calculate the generating functions for the number of tilings of rectangles of various widths by the right tromino, the $L$ tetromino, and the $T$ tetromino. This allows us to place lower bounds on the entropy of tilings of the plane by each of these. For the $T$ tetromino, we also derive a lower bound from the solution of the Ising model in two dimensions.

math.CO↗

arXiv1999

Quantum Circuits: Fanout, Parity, and Counting

We propose definitions of QAC^0, the quantum analog of the classical class AC^0 of constant-depth circuits with AND and OR gates of arbitrary fan-in, and QACC^0[q], where n-ary Mod-q gates are also allowed. We show that it is possible to make a `cat' state on n qubits in constant depth if and only if we can construct a parity or Mod-2 gate in constant depth; therefore, any circuit class that can fan out a qubit to n copies in constant depth also includes QACC^0[2]. In addition, we prove the somewhat surprising result that parity or fanout allows us to construct Mod-q gates in constant depth for any q, so QACC^0[2] = QACC^0. Since ACC^0[p] != ACC^0[q] whenever p and q are mutually prime, QACC^0[2] is strictly more powerful than its classical counterpart, as is QAC^0 when fanout is allowed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1999

Height representation, critical exponents, and ergodicity in the four-state triangular Potts antiferromagnet

We study the four-state antiferromagnetic Potts model on the triangular lattice. We show that the model has six types of defects which diffuse and annihilate according to certain conservation laws consistent with their having a vector-valued topological charge. Using the properties of these defects, we deduce a 2+2-dimensional height representation for the model and hence show that the model is equivalent to the three-state Potts antiferromagnet on the Kagome lattice and to bond-coloring models on the triangular and hexagonal lattices. We also calculate critical exponents for the ground state ensemble of the model. We find that the exponents governing the spin-spin correlation function and spin fluctuations violate the Fisher scaling law because of constraints on path length which increase the effective wavelength of the spin operator on the height lattice. We confirm our predictions by extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the model using the Wang-Swendsen-Kotecky cluster algorithm. Although this algorithm is not ergodic on lattices with toroidal boundary conditions, we prove that it is ergodic on lattices with free boundary conditions, or more generally on lattices possessing no non-contractible loops of infinite order. To guard against biases introduced by lack of ergodicity, we therefore perform our simulations on both the torus and the projective plane.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

Vortex Dynamics and Entropic Coulomb Forces in Ising and Potts Antiferromagnets and Ice Models

We study the dynamics of topological defects in the triangular Ising antiferromagnet, a related model on the square lattice equivalent to the six-vertex ice model, and the three-state antiferromagnetic Potts model on the square lattice. Since each of these models has a height representation in which defects are screw dislocations, we expect them to be attracted or repelled with an entropy-driven Coulomb force. In each case we show explicitly how this force is felt through local fields. We measure the force numerically, both by quenching the system to zero temperature and by measuring the motion of vortex pairs. For the three-state Potts model, we calculate both the force and the defect mobility, and find reasonable agreement with theory.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1998

Queues, Stacks, and Transcendentality at the Transition to Chaos

We examine the one-humped map at the period-doubling transition to chaos, and ask whether its long-term memory is stack-like (last-in, first-out) or queue-like (first-in, first-out). We show that it can be recognized by a real-time automaton with one queue, or two stacks, and give several new grammatical characterizations of it. We argue that its memory has a queue-like character, since a single stack does not suffice. We also show that its dynamical zeta function, generating function and growth function are transcendental. The same results hold for any period-multiplying cascade. We suggest that transcendentality might be a sign of dynamical phase transitions in other systems as well.

chao-dyn↗

arXiv1998

The Computational Complexity of Sandpiles

Given an initial distribution of sand in an Abelian sandpile, what final state does it relax to after all possible avalanches have taken place? In d >= 3, we show that this problem is P-complete, so that explicit simulation of the system is almost certainly necessary. We also show that the problem of determining whether a sandpile state is recurrent is P-complete in d >= 3. In d=1, we give two algorithms for predicting the sandpile on a lattice of size n, both faster than explicit simulation: a serial one that runs in time O(n log n), and a parallel one that runs in time O(log^3 n), i.e. in the class NC^3. The latter is based on a more general problem we call Additive Ranked Generability. This leaves the two-dimensional case as an interesting open problem.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1998

Parallel Quantum Computation and Quantum Codes

We propose a definition of QNC, the quantum analog of the efficient parallel class NC. We exhibit several useful gadgets and prove that various classes of circuits can be parallelized to logarithmic depth, including circuits for encoding and decoding standard quantum error-correcting codes, or more generally any circuit consisting of controlled-not gates, controlled pi-shifts, and Hadamard gates. Finally, while we note the Quantum Fourier Transform can be parallelized to linear depth, we conjecture that an even simpler `staircase' circuit cannot be parallelized to less than linear depth, and might be used to prove that QNC < QP.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1998

Some Notes on Parallel Quantum Computation

We exhibit some simple gadgets useful in designing shallow parallel circuits for quantum algorithms. We prove that any quantum circuit composed entirely of controlled-not gates or of diagonal gates can be parallelized to logarithmic depth, while circuits composed of both cannot. Finally, while we note the Quantum Fourier Transform can be parallelized to linear depth, we exhibit a simple quantum circuit related to it that we believe cannot be parallelized to less than linear depth, and therefore might be used to prove that QNC < QP.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1998

Complexity of Two-Dimensional Patterns

In dynamical systems such as cellular automata and iterated maps, it is often useful to look at a language or set of symbol sequences produced by the system. There are well-established classification schemes, such as the Chomsky hierarchy, with which we can measure the complexity of these sets of sequences, and thus the complexity of the systems which produce them. In this paper, we look at the first few levels of a hierarchy of complexity for two-or-more-dimensional patterns. We show that several definitions of ``regular language'' or ``local rule'' that are equivalent in d=1 lead to distinct classes in d >= 2. We explore the closure properties and computational complexity of these classes, including undecidability and L-, NL- and NP-completeness results. We apply these classes to cellular automata, in particular to their sets of fixed and periodic points, finite-time images, and limit sets. We show that it is undecidable whether a CA in d >= 2 has a periodic point of a given period, and that certain ``local lattice languages'' are not finite-time images or limit sets of any CA. We also show that the entropy of a d-dimensional CA's finite-time image cannot decrease faster than t^{-d} unless it maps every initial condition to a single homogeneous state.

cond-mat↗