Graph Searching Games and Probabilistic Methods

by Anthony Bonato, Pawel Pralat

Overview

Graph Searching Games and Probabilistic Methods is the first book that focuses on the intersection of graph searching games and probabilistic methods. The book explores various applications of these powerful mathematical tools to games and processes such as Cops and Robbers, Zombie and Survivors, and Firefighting.

Written in an engaging style, the book is accessible to a wide audience including mathematicians and computer scientists. Readers will find that the book provides state-of-the-art results, techniques, and directions in graph searching games, especially from the point of view of probabilistic methods.

The authors describe three directions while providing numerous examples, which include:

• Playing a deterministic game on a random board.

• Players making random moves.

• Probabilistic methods used to analyze a deterministic game.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138627161
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/27/2017
Series:	Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications
Pages:	402
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dr. Anthony Bonato is a professor of Mathematics at Ryerson University, whose main research interests are in graph theory and complex networks. He is co-Editor-in-Chief of Internet Mathematics, editor for Contributions to Discrete Mathematics, and Chair of the Pure Mathematics group within the NSERC Discovery Grants Mathematics and Statistics Evaluation Group.

Dr. Pawel Prałat is an associate professor at Ryerson University whose main research interests are in graph theory and complex networks. He is the Assistant Director of Industry Liaison at The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, and has pursued collaborations with various industry partners as well as the Government of Canada.

Table of Contents

Preface; Chapter 1: Introduction; 2: The Game of Cops and Robbers; 3. Variations of Cops and Robbers; 4. Large Cop Number and Meyniel’s Conjecture; 5. Graph Cleaning; 6. Acquaintance Time; 7. Random Geometric Graphs; 8. Firefighting and Seepage; 9. Miscellaneous Topics; Bibliography; Index

Editorial Reviews

"Pursuit-evasion games is an exciting branch of graph theory, with many innocent looking problems that are very dicult to solve. Written by two experts in this lively area, this book surveys the state-of-the-art results in this area and explains the most important ideas in an engaging manner. Another important theme in this book is probabilistic methods; through fascinating and fun graph searching games, the book covers quite a range of important tools from probabilistic methods and random graphs.

This book is fun to read, accessible to students as well as to researchers, and it is an attractive resource for everyone who wants to enter any of these three areas: graph searching games, probabilistic methods, or random graphs. It can also be used as the textbook for a graduatecourse on these topics."

Abbas Mehrabian (Montreal)

From the Publisher