Finite Cardinalities of Misère Quotients
We find that partisan misère quotients can have any finite cardinality other than 3, answering a question of Allen. This contrasts with impartial misère quotients, which must have even cardinality.
math.CO↗
arXiv subjects
Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo
Publications and source records attributed to Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo.
Evil Twins in Sums of Wildflowers
A game $G$ is said to have the evil twin property if there exists $G^* \in \{G,G+*\}$ such that $o^+(G) = o^-(G^*)$ and $o^+(G^*) = o^-(G)$. We study sums of wildflowers, games of form $G:H$. We find that a large closed set of sums of wildflowers has the evil twin property, extending work of McKay--Milley--Nowakowski and Lo. Our argument partially generalizes the misère genus theory of Conway to partizan games, and requires proving several general theorems on ways to extend sets with the evil twin property. Many sums of mutant flowers of the form $\{*x_1,\dots,*x_n\}:a$, where $a$ is a number, also have the evil twin property. We also prove that this set of mutant flowers is the largest such closed set with the evil twin property, and that it is $\mathsf{NP\text{-}hard}$ to compute the outcome class of a sum of mutant flowers under either play convention via a reduction from \textsc{3-Sat}. Previous work on this topic was done by McKay, Milley, and Nowakowski, and later Lo.
math.CO↗
RSK-Complete Cycle Decompositions
We characterize the class of cycle decompositions that can achieve all Young tableau shapes (except the trivial ones with a single row or a single column) under the Robinson--Schensted--Knuth (RSK) correspondence, a property that we call RSK-completeness. We prove that for even $n$, cyclic permutations comprise the only fixed cycle decomposition that is RSK-complete. For odd $n$, cyclic permutations and almost cyclic permutations which have a cycle of length $n-1$ are the only RSK-complete cycle decompositions.
math.CO↗
Inscribed triangles of Jordan curves in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$
Nielsen's theorem states that any triangle can be inscribed in a planar Jordan curve. We prove a generalisation of this theorem, extending to any Jordan curve $J$ embedded in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$, for a restricted set of triangles. We then conclude by investigating a condition under which a given point of $J$ inscribes an equilateral triangle in particular.
math.MG↗
Cyclotomic Coincidences
In this paper, we show that if $m$ and $n$ are distinct positive integers and $x$ is a nonzero real number with $Φ_m(x)=Φ_n(x)$, then $\frac{1}{2}<|x|<2$ except when $\{m,n\}=\{2,6\}$ and $x=2$. We also observe that 2 appears to be the largest limit point of the set of values of $x$ for which $Φ_m(x)=Φ_n(x)$ for some $m\neq n$.
math.NT↗
Diophantine Tuples over $\mathbb{Z}_p$
For an element $r$ of a ring $R$, a Diophantine $D(r)$ $m$-tuple is an $m$-tuple $(a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_m)$ of elements of $R$ such that for all $i,j$ with $i\neq j$, $a_ia_j+r$ is a perfect square in $R$. In this article, we compute and estimate the measures of the sets of $D(r)$ $m$-tuples in the ring $\mathbb{Z}_p$ of $p$-adic integers, as well as its residue field $\mathbb{F}_p$.
math.NT↗
Stability for Take-Away Games
In this paper, we study a family of take-away games called $α$-tag, parametrized by a real number $α\ge 1$. We show that for any given $α$, there is a half-open interval $I_α$ containing $α$ such that the set of losing positions for $α$-tag is the same as the set of losing positions for $β$-tag if and only if $β\in I_α$. We then end with some results and conjectures on the nature of these intervals.
math.CO↗
$\mathcal{P}$ Play in Candy Nim
Candy Nim is a variant of Nim in which both players aim to take the last candy in a game of Nim, with the added simultaneous secondary goal of taking as many candies as possible. We give bounds on the number of candies the first and second players obtain in 3-pile $\mathcal{P}$ positions as well as strategies that are provably optimal for some families of such games. We also show how to construct a game with $N$ candies such that the loser takes the largest possible number of candies and bound the number of candies the winner can take in an arbitrary $\mathcal{P}$ position with $N$ total candies.
math.CO↗
The Asymmetric Colonel Blotto Game
This paper explores the Nash equilibria of a variant of the Colonel Blotto game, which we call the Asymmetric Colonel Blotto game. In the Colonel Blotto game, two players simultaneously distribute forces across $n$ battlefields. Within each battlefield, the player that allocates the higher level of force wins. The payoff of the game is the proportion of wins on the individual battlefields. In the asymmetric version, the levels of force distributed to the battlefields must be nondecreasing. In this paper, we find a family of Nash equilibria for the case with three battlefields and equal levels of force and prove the uniqueness of the marginal distributions. We also find the unique equilibrium payoff for all possible levels of force in the case with two battlefields, and obtain partial results for the unique equilibrium payoff for asymmetric levels of force in the case with three battlefields.
cs.GT↗
Reduction of dynatomic curves
The dynatomic modular curves parametrize polynomial maps together with a point of period $n$. It is known that the dynatomic curves $Y_1(n)$ are smooth and irreducible in characteristic 0 for families of polynomial maps of the form $f_c(z) = z^m +c$ where $m\geq 2$. In the present paper, we build on the work of Morton to partially characterize the primes $p$ for which the reduction modulo $p$ of $Y_1(n)$ remains smooth and/or irreducible. As an application, we give new examples of good reduction of $Y_1(n)$ for several primes dividing the ramification discriminant when $n=7,8,11$. The proofs involve arithmetic and complex dynamics, reduction theory for curves, ramification theory, and the combinatorics of the Mandelbrot set.
math.DS↗
Could Euler have conjectured the prime number theorem?
In this article, we investigate how Euler might have been led to conjecture the Prime Number Theorem, based on what he knew. We also speculate on why he did not do so.
math.HO↗
Noncrossing partitions, toggles, and homomesies
We introduce $n(n-1)/2$ natural involutions ("toggles") on the set $S$ of noncrossing partitions $π$ of size $n$, along with certain composite operations obtained by composing these involutions. We show that for many operations $T$ of this kind, a surprisingly large family of functions $f$ on $S$ (including the function that sends $π$ to the number of blocks of $π$) exhibits the homomesy phenomenon: the average of $f$ over the elements of a $T$-orbit is the same for all $T$-orbits. We can apply our method of proof more broadly to toggle operations back on the collection of independent sets of certain graphs. We utilize this generalization to prove a theorem about toggling on a family of graphs called "$2$-cliquish". More generally, the philosophy of this "toggle-action", proposed by Striker, is a popular topic of current and future research in dynamic algebraic combinatorics.
math.CO↗
Finite ramification for preimage fields of postcritically finite morphisms
Given a finite endomorphism $φ$ of a variety $X$ defined over the field of fractions $K$ of a Dedekind domain, we study the extension $K(φ^{-\infty}(α)) : = \bigcup_{n \geq 1} K(φ^{-n}(α))$ generated by the preimages of $α$ under all iterates of $φ$. In particular when $φ$ is post-critically finite, i.e., there exists a non-empty, Zariski-open $W \subseteq X$ such that $φ^{-1}(W) \subseteq W$ and $φ: W \to X$ is étale, we prove that $K(φ^{-\infty}(α))$ is ramified over only finitely many primes of $K$. This provides a large supply of infinite extensions with restricted ramification, and generalizes results of Aitken-Hajir-Maire in the case $X = \mathbb{A}^1$ and Cullinan-Hajir, Jones-Manes in the case $X = \mathbb{P}^1$. Moreover, we conjecture that this finite ramification condition characterizes post-critically finite morphisms, and we give an entirely new result showing this for $X = \mathbb{P}^1$. The proof relies on Faltings' theorem and a local argument.
math.NT↗
Global Fibonacci Nim
Fibonacci nim is a popular impartial combinatorial game, usually played with a single pile of stones. The game is appealing due to its surprising connections with the Fibonacci numbers and the Zeckendorf representation. In this article, we investigate some properties of a variant played with multiple piles of stones, and solve the 2-pile case. A player chooses one of the piles and plays as in Fibonacci nim, but here the move-size restriction is a global parameter, valid for any pile.
math.CO↗
Analysis on Surreal Numbers
The class $\mathbf{No}$ of surreal numbers, which John Conway discovered while studying combinatorial games, possesses a rich numerical structure and shares many arithmetic and algebraic properties with the real numbers. Some work has also been done to develop analysis on $\mathbf{No}$. In this paper, we extend this work with a treatment of functions, limits, derivatives, power series, and integrals. We propose surreal definitions of the arctangent and logarithm functions using truncations of Maclaurin series. Using a new representation of surreals, we present a formula for the limit of a sequence, and we use this formula to provide a complete characterization of convergent sequences and to evaluate certain series and infinite Riemann sums via extrapolation. A similar formula allows us to evaluates limits (and hence derivatives) of functions. By defining a new topology on $\mathbf{No}$, we obtain the Intermediate Value Theorem even though $\mathbf{No}$ is not Cauchy complete, and we prove that the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus would hold for surreals if a consistent definition of integration exists. Extending our study to defining other analytic functions, evaluating power series in generality, finding a consistent definition of integration, proving Stokes' Theorem to generalize surreal integration, and studying differential equations remains open.
math.CA↗
Curvature and Concentration of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo in High Dimensions
In this article, we analyze Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) by placing it in the setting of Riemannian geometry using the Jacobi metric, so that each step corresponds to a geodesic on a suitable Riemannian manifold. We then combine the notion of curvature of a Markov chain due to Joulin and Ollivier with the classical sectional curvature from Riemannian geometry to derive error bounds for HMC in important cases, where we have positive curvature. These cases include several classical distributions such as multivariate Gaussians, and also distributions arising in the study of Bayesian image registration. The theoretical development suggests the sectional curvature as a new diagnostic tool for convergence for certain Markov chains.
math.PR↗
Grundy values of Fibonacci nim
In this article, we investigate the Grundy values of the popular game of Fibonacci nim. The winning strategy, which amounts to understanding positions of Grundy value 0, was known since Whinihan in 1963. In this paper, we extend Whinihan's analysis by computing all the positions of Grundy value at most 3. Furthermore, we show that, when we delete the Fibonacci numbers (which have Grundy value 0), the Grundy values of the starting positions are increasing, and we give upper and lower bounds on the growth rate.
math.CO↗