79,269 research outputs found
On Iterated Dominance, Matrix Elimination, and Matched Paths
We study computational problems arising from the iterated removal of weakly
dominated actions in anonymous games. Our main result shows that it is
NP-complete to decide whether an anonymous game with three actions can be
solved via iterated weak dominance. The two-action case can be reformulated as
a natural elimination problem on a matrix, the complexity of which turns out to
be surprisingly difficult to characterize and ultimately remains open. We
however establish connections to a matching problem along paths in a directed
graph, which is computationally hard in general but can also be used to
identify tractable cases of matrix elimination. We finally identify different
classes of anonymous games where iterated dominance is in P and NP-complete,
respectively.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 27th International Symposium on Theoretical
Aspects of Computer Science (STACS
Forbidden Directed Minors and Kelly-width
Partial 1-trees are undirected graphs of treewidth at most one. Similarly,
partial 1-DAGs are directed graphs of KellyWidth at most two. It is well-known
that an undirected graph is a partial 1-tree if and only if it has no K_3
minor. In this paper, we generalize this characterization to partial 1-DAGs. We
show that partial 1-DAGs are characterized by three forbidden directed minors,
K_3, N_4 and M_5
Single-Elimination Brackets Fail to Approximate Copeland Winner
Single-elimination (SE) brackets appear commonly in both sports tournaments and the voting theory literature. In certain tournament models, they have been shown to select the unambiguously-strongest competitor with optimum probability. By contrast, we reevaluate SE brackets through the lens of approximation, where the goal is to select a winner who would beat the most other competitors in a round robin (i.e., maximize the Copeland score), and find them lacking. Our primary result establishes the approximation ratio of a randomly-seeded SE bracket is 2^{- Theta(sqrt{log n})}; this is underwhelming considering a 1/2 ratio is achieved by choosing a winner uniformly at random. We also establish that a generalized version of the SE bracket performs nearly as poorly, with an approximation ratio of 2^{- Omega(sqrt[4]{log n})}, addressing a decade-old open question in the voting tree literature
Characterizations and algorithms for generalized Cops and Robbers games
We propose a definition of generalized Cops and Robbers games where there are
two players, the Pursuer and the Evader, who each move via prescribed rules. If
the Pursuer can ensure that the game enters into a fixed set of final
positions, then the Pursuer wins; otherwise, the Evader wins. A relational
characterization of the games where the Pursuer wins is provided. A precise
formula is given for the length of the game, along with an algorithm for
computing if the Pursuer has a winning strategy whose complexity is a function
of the parameters of the game. For games where the position of one player does
not affect the available moves of he other, a vertex elimination ordering
characterization, analogous to a cop-win ordering, is given for when the
Pursuer has a winning strategy
Manipulating Tournaments in Cup and Round Robin Competitions
In sports competitions, teams can manipulate the result by, for instance,
throwing games. We show that we can decide how to manipulate round robin and
cup competitions, two of the most popular types of sporting competitions in
polynomial time. In addition, we show that finding the minimal number of games
that need to be thrown to manipulate the result can also be determined in
polynomial time. Finally, we show that there are several different variations
of standard cup competitions where manipulation remains polynomial.Comment: Proceedings of Algorithmic Decision Theory, First International
Conference, ADT 2009, Venice, Italy, October 20-23, 200
The Complexity of Iterated Strategy Elimination
We consider the computational complexity of the question whether a certain
strategy can be removed from a game by means of iterated elimination of
dominated strategies. In particular, we study the influence of different
definitions of domination and of the number of different payoff values. In
addition, the consequence of restriction to constant-sum games is shown
The tropical double description method
We develop a tropical analogue of the classical double description method
allowing one to compute an internal representation (in terms of vertices) of a
polyhedron defined externally (by inequalities). The heart of the tropical
algorithm is a characterization of the extreme points of a polyhedron in terms
of a system of constraints which define it. We show that checking the
extremality of a point reduces to checking whether there is only one minimal
strongly connected component in an hypergraph. The latter problem can be solved
in almost linear time, which allows us to eliminate quickly redundant
generators. We report extensive tests (including benchmarks from an application
to static analysis) showing that the method outperforms experimentally the
previous ones by orders of magnitude. The present tools also lead to worst case
bounds which improve the ones provided by previous methods.Comment: 12 pages, prepared for the Proceedings of the Symposium on
Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, 2010, Nancy, Franc
A Type-Directed Negation Elimination
In the modal mu-calculus, a formula is well-formed if each recursive variable
occurs underneath an even number of negations. By means of De Morgan's laws, it
is easy to transform any well-formed formula into an equivalent formula without
negations -- its negation normal form. Moreover, if the formula is of size n,
its negation normal form of is of the same size O(n). The full modal
mu-calculus and the negation normal form fragment are thus equally expressive
and concise.
In this paper we extend this result to the higher-order modal fixed point
logic (HFL), an extension of the modal mu-calculus with higher-order recursive
predicate transformers. We present a procedure that converts a formula into an
equivalent formula without negations of quadratic size in the worst case and of
linear size when the number of variables of the formula is fixed.Comment: In Proceedings FICS 2015, arXiv:1509.0282
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