1,143 research outputs found
Toppling Numbers of Complete and Random Graphs
We study a two-person game played on graphs based on the widely studied chip-firing game. Players Max and Min alternately place chips on the vertices of a graph. When a vertex accumulates as many chips as its degree, it fires, sending one chip to each neighbour; this may in turn cause other vertices to fire. The game ends when vertices continue firing forever. Min seeks to minimize the number of chips played during the game, while Max seeks to maximize it. When both players play optimally, the length of the game is the toppling number of a graph G, and is denoted by t(G).
By considering strategies for both players and investigating the evolution of the game with differential equations, we provide asymptotic bounds on the toppling number of the complete graph. In particular, we prove that for sufficiently large n
0.596400n2 \u3c t(Kn) \u3c 0.637152n2.
Using a fractional version of the game, we couple the toppling numbers of complete graphs and the binomial random graph G(n,p). It is shown that for pn ≥ n2 / √ log n asymptotically almost surely t(G(n,p)) = (1+o(1))pt(Kn)
The approach to criticality in sandpiles
A popular theory of self-organized criticality relates the critical behavior
of driven dissipative systems to that of systems with conservation. In
particular, this theory predicts that the stationary density of the abelian
sandpile model should be equal to the threshold density of the corresponding
fixed-energy sandpile. This "density conjecture" has been proved for the
underlying graph Z. We show (by simulation or by proof) that the density
conjecture is false when the underlying graph is any of Z^2, the complete graph
K_n, the Cayley tree, the ladder graph, the bracelet graph, or the flower
graph. Driven dissipative sandpiles continue to evolve even after a constant
fraction of the sand has been lost at the sink. These results cast doubt on the
validity of using fixed-energy sandpiles to explore the critical behavior of
the abelian sandpile model at stationarity.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, long version of arXiv:0912.320
Driving sandpiles to criticality and beyond
A popular theory of self-organized criticality relates driven dissipative
systems to systems with conservation. This theory predicts that the stationary
density of the abelian sandpile model equals the threshold density of the
fixed-energy sandpile. We refute this prediction for a wide variety of
underlying graphs, including the square grid. Driven dissipative sandpiles
continue to evolve even after reaching criticality. This result casts doubt on
the validity of using fixed-energy sandpiles to explore the critical behavior
of the abelian sandpile model at stationarity.Comment: v4 adds referenc
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
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