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Sascha Kurz

Publications and source records attributed to Sascha Kurz.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
arXiv2013

On minimum integer representations of weighted games

We study minimum integer representations of weighted games, i.e., representations where the weights are integers and every other integer representation is at least as large in each component. Those minimum integer representations, if the exist at all, are linked with some solution concepts in game theory. Closing existing gaps in the literature, we prove that each weighted game with two types of voters admits a (unique) minimum integer representation, and give new examples for more than two types of voters without a minimum integer representation. We characterize the possible weights in minimum integer representations and give examples for $t\ge 4$ types of voters without a minimum integer representation preserving types, i.e., where we additionally require that the weights are equal within equivalence classes of voters.

math.CO↗
arXiv2013

Enumeration of weighted games with minimum and an analysis of voting power for bipartite complete games with minimum

This paper is a twofold contribution. First, it contributes to the problem of enumerating some classes of simple games and in particular provides the number of weighted games with minimum and the number of weighted games for the dual class as well. Second, we focus on the special case of bipartite complete games with minimum, and we compare and rank these games according to the behavior of some efficient power indices of players of type 1 (or of type 2). The main result of this second part establishes all allowable rankings of these games when the Shapley-Shubik power index is used on players of type 1.

math.CO↗
arXiv2013

Sets avoiding integral distances

We study open point sets in Euclidean spaces $\mathbb{R}^d$ without a pair of points an integral distance apart. By a result of Furstenberg, Katznelson, and Weiss such sets must be of Lebesgue upper density zero. We are interested in how large such sets can be in $d$-dimensional volume. We determine the lower and upper bounds for the volumes of the sets in terms of the number of their connected components and dimension, and also give some exact values. Our problem can be viewed as a kind of inverse to known problems on sets with pairwise rational or integral distances.

math.MG↗
arXiv2012

On the inverse power index problem

Weighted voting games are frequently used in decision making. Each voter has a weight and a proposal is accepted if the weight sum of the supporting voters exceeds a quota. One line of research is the efficient computation of so-called power indices measuring the influence of a voter. We treat the inverse problem: Given an influence vector and a power index, determine a weighted voting game such that the distribution of influence among the voters is as close as possible to the given target value. We present exact algorithms and computational results for the Shapley-Shubik and the (normalized) Banzhaf power index.

math.OC↗
arXiv2012

On the Egalitarian Weights of Nations

Voters from m disjoint constituencies (regions, federal states, etc.) are represented in an assembly which contains one delegate from each constituency and applies a weighted voting rule. All agents are assumed to have single-peaked preferences over an interval; each delegate's preferences match his constituency's median voter; and the collective decision equals the assembly's Condorcet winner. We characterize the asymptotic behavior of the probability of a given delegate determining the outcome (i.e., being the weighted median of medians) in order to address a contentious practical question: which voting weights w_1, ..., w_m ought to be selected if constituency sizes differ and all voters are to have a priori equal influence on collective decisions? It is shown that if ideal point distributions have identical median M and are suitably continuous, the probability for a given delegate i's ideal point λ_i being the Condorcet winner becomes asymptotically proportional to i's voting weight w_i times λ_i's density at M as $m\to \infty$. Indirect representation of citizens is approximately egalitarian for weights proportional to the square root of constituency sizes if all individual ideal points are i.i.d. In contrast, weights that are linear in-- or, better, induce a Shapley value linear in-- size are egalitarian when preferences are sufficiently strongly affiliated within constituencies.

cs.GT↗
arXiv2012

On $α$-roughly weighted games

Gvozdeva, Hemaspaandra, and Slinko (2011) have introduced three hierarchies for simple games in order to measure the distance of a given simple game to the class of (roughly) weighted voting games. Their third class $\mathcal{C}_α$ consists of all simple games permitting a weighted representation such that each winning coalition has a weight of at least 1 and each losing coalition a weight of at most $α$. For a given game the minimal possible value of $α$ is called its critical threshold value. We continue the work on the critical threshold value, initiated by Gvozdeva et al., and contribute some new results on the possible values for a given number of voters as well as some general bounds for restricted subclasses of games. A strong relation beween this concept and the cost of stability, i.e. the minimum amount of external payment to ensure stability in a coalitional game, is uncovered.

math.CO↗
arXiv2012

Heuristic and exact solutions to the inverse power index problem for small voting bodies

Power indices are mappings that quantify the influence of the members of a voting body on collective decisions a priori. Their nonlinearity and discontinuity makes it difficult to compute inverse images, i.e., to determine a voting system which induces a power distribution as close as possible to a desired one. This paper considers approximations and exact solutions to this inverse problem for the Penrose-Banzhaf index, which are obtained by enumeration and integer linear programming techniques. They are compared to the results of three simple solution heuristics. The heuristics perform well in absolute terms but can be improved upon very considerably in relative terms. The findings complement known asymptotic results for large voting bodies and may improve termination criteria for local search algorithms.

math.CO↗
arXiv2010

On Dedekind's problem for complete simple games

We combine the parametric Barvinok algorithm with a generation algorithm for a finite list of suitably chosen discrete sub-cases on the enumeration of complete simple games, i.e. a special subclass of monotone Boolean functions. Recently, Freixas et al. have proven an enumeration formula for complete simple games with two types of voters. We will provide a shorter proof and an enumeration formula for complete simple games with two shift-minimal winning coalitions.

math.CO↗
arXiv2008

Construction of Large Constant Dimension Codes With a Prescribed Minimum Distance

In this paper we construct constant dimension space codes with prescribed minimum distance. There is an increased interest in space codes since a paper by Koetter and Kschischang were they gave an application in network coding. There is also a connection to the theory of designs over finite fields. We will modify a method of Braun, Kerber and Laue which they used for the construction of designs over finite fields to do the construction of space codes. Using this approach we found many new constant dimension spaces codes with a larger number of codewords than previously known codes. We will finally give a table of the best found constant dimension space codes.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2008

Lotsize optimization leading to a $p$-median problem with cardinalities

We consider the problem of approximating the branch and size dependent demand of a fashion discounter with many branches by a distributing process being based on the branch delivery restricted to integral multiples of lots from a small set of available lot-types. We propose a formalized model which arises from a practical cooperation with an industry partner. Besides an integer linear programming formulation and a primal heuristic for this problem we also consider a more abstract version which we relate to several other classical optimization problems like the p-median problem, the facility location problem or the matching problem.

math.OC↗
arXiv2008

Demand forecasting for companies with many branches, low sales numbers per product, and non-recurring orderings

We propose the new Top-Dog-Index to quantify the historic deviation of the supply data of many small branches for a commodity group from sales data. On the one hand, the common parametric assumptions on the customer demand distribution in the literature could not at all be supported in our real-world data set. On the other hand, a reasonably-looking non-parametric approach to estimate the demand distribution for the different branches directly from the sales distribution could only provide us with statistically weak and unreliable estimates for the future demand. Based on real-world sales data from our industry partner we provide evidence that our Top-Dog-Index is statistically robust. Using the Top-Dog-Index, we propose a heuristics to improve the branch-dependent proportion between supply and demand. Our approach cannot estimate the branch-dependent demand directly. It can, however, classify the branches into a given number of clusters according to an historic oversupply or undersupply. This classification of branches can iteratively be used to adapt the branch distribution of supply and demand in the future.

q-fin.GN↗
arXiv2008

The Top-Dog Index: A New Measurement for the Demand Consistency of the Size Distribution in Pre-Pack Orders for a Fashion Discounter with Many Small Branches

We propose the new Top-Dog-Index, a measure for the branch-dependent historic deviation of the supply data of apparel sizes from the sales data of a fashion discounter. A common approach is to estimate demand for sizes directly from the sales data. This approach may yield information for the demand for sizes if aggregated over all branches and products. However, as we will show in a real-world business case, this direct approach is in general not capable to provide information about each branch's individual demand for sizes: the supply per branch is so small that either the number of sales is statistically too small for a good estimate (early measurement) or there will be too much unsatisfied demand neglected in the sales data (late measurement). Moreover, in our real-world data we could not verify any of the demand distribution assumptions suggested in the literature. Our approach cannot estimate the demand for sizes directly. It can, however, individually measure for each branch the scarcest and the amplest sizes, aggregated over all products. This measurement can iteratively be used to adapt the size distributions in the pre-pack orders for the future. A real-world blind study shows the potential of this distribution free heuristic optimization approach: The gross yield measured in percent of gross value was almost one percentage point higher in the test-group branches than in the control-group branches.

math.OC↗
arXiv2008

Maximal integral point sets over $\mathbb{Z}^2$

Geometrical objects with integral side lengths have fascinated mathematicians through the ages. We call a set $P=\{p_1,...,p_n\}\subset\mathbb{Z}^2$ a maximal integral point set over $\mathbb{Z}^2$ if all pairwise distances are integral and every additional point $p_{n+1}$ destroys this property. Here we consider such sets for a given cardinality and with minimum possible diameter. We determine some exact values via exhaustive search and give several constructions for arbitrary cardinalities. Since we cannot guarantee the maximality in these cases we describe an algorithm to prove or disprove the maximality of a given integral point set. We additionally consider restrictions as no three points on a line and no four points on a circle.

math.CO↗
arXiv2008

Integral point sets over finite fields

We consider point sets in the affine plane $\mathbb{F}_q^2$ where each Euclidean distance of two points is an element of $\mathbb{F}_q$. These sets are called integral point sets and were originally defined in $m$-dimensional Euclidean spaces $\mathbb{E}^m$. We determine their maximal cardinality $\mathcal{I}(\mathbb{F}_q,2)$. For arbitrary commutative rings $\mathcal{R}$ instead of $\mathbb{F}_q$ or for further restrictions as no three points on a line or no four points on a circle we give partial results. Additionally we study the geometric structure of the examples with maximum cardinality.

math.CO↗
arXiv2008

Bounds for the minimum oriented diameter

We consider the problem of finding an orientation with minimum diameter of a connected bridgeless graph. Fomin et. al. discovered a relation between the minimum oriented diameter an the size of a minimal dominating set. We improve their upper bound.

math.CO↗
arXiv2008

Integral point sets over $\mathbb{Z}_n^m$

There are many papers studying properties of point sets in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{E}^m$ or on integer grids $\mathbb{Z}^m$, with pairwise integral or rational distances. In this article we consider the distances or coordinates of the point sets which instead of being integers are elements of $\mathbb{Z} / \mathbb{Z}n$, and study the properties of the resulting combinatorial structures.

math.CO↗
arXiv2008

On the minimum diameter of plane integral point sets

Since ancient times mathematicians consider geometrical objects with integral side lengths. We consider plane integral point sets $\mathcal{P}$, which are sets of $n$ points in the plane with pairwise integral distances where not all the points are collinear. The largest occurring distance is called its diameter. Naturally the question about the minimum possible diameter $d(2,n)$ of a plane integral point set consisting of $n$ points arises. We give some new exact values and describe state-of-the-art algorithms to obtain them. It turns out that plane integral point sets with minimum diameter consist very likely of subsets with many collinear points. For this special kind of point sets we prove a lower bound for $d(2,n)$ achieving the known upper bound $n^{c_2\log\log n}$ up to a constant in the exponent. A famous question of Erdős asks for plane integral point sets with no 3 points on a line and no 4 points on a circle. Here, we talk of point sets in general position and denote the corresponding minimum diameter by $\dot{d}(2,n)$. Recently $\dot{d}(2,7)=22 270$ could be determined via an exhaustive search.

math.CO↗