28 research outputs found
On the complexity of the chip-firing reachability problem
In this paper, we study the complexity of the chip-firing reachability
problem. We show that for Eulerian digraphs, the reachability problem can be
decided in strongly polynomial time, even if the digraph has multiple edges. We
also show a special case when the reachability problem can be decided in
polynomial time for general digraphs: if the target distribution is recurrent
restricted to each strongly connected component. As a further positive result,
we show that the chip-firing reachability problem is in co-NP for general
digraphs. We also show that the chip-firing halting problem is in co-NP for
Eulerian digraphs
Abelian networks II. Halting on all inputs
Abelian networks are systems of communicating automata satisfying a local
commutativity condition. We show that a finite irreducible abelian network
halts on all inputs if and only if all eigenvalues of its production matrix lie
in the open unit disk.Comment: Supersedes sections 5 and 6 of arXiv:1309.3445v1. To appear in
Selecta Mathematic
Abelian networks III. The critical group
The critical group of an abelian network is a finite abelian group that
governs the behavior of the network on large inputs. It generalizes the
sandpile group of a graph. We show that the critical group of an irreducible
abelian network acts freely and transitively on recurrent states of the
network. We exhibit the critical group as a quotient of a free abelian group by
a subgroup containing the image of the Laplacian, with equality in the case
that the network is rectangular. We generalize Dhar's burning algorithm to
abelian networks, and estimate the running time of an abelian network on an
arbitrary input up to a constant additive error.Comment: supersedes sections 7 and 8 of arXiv:1309.3445v1. To appear in the
Journal of Algebraic Combinatoric
Fast simulation of large-scale growth models
We give an algorithm that computes the final state of certain growth models
without computing all intermediate states. Our technique is based on a "least
action principle" which characterizes the odometer function of the growth
process. Starting from an approximation for the odometer, we successively
correct under- and overestimates and provably arrive at the correct final
state.
Internal diffusion-limited aggregation (IDLA) is one of the models amenable
to our technique. The boundary fluctuations in IDLA were recently proved to be
at most logarithmic in the size of the growth cluster, but the constant in
front of the logarithm is still not known. As an application of our method, we
calculate the size of fluctuations over two orders of magnitude beyond previous
simulations, and use the results to estimate this constant.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures. To appear in Random Structures & Algorithm