Generalized geography

Abstract: A random probabilistically checkable debate system (RPCDS) for a language L consists of a probabilistic polynomial-time verifier V and a debate between Player 1, who aims to prove that the input x is in L, and Player 0, who selects a move uniformly at random from the set of legal moves. This model is a natural restriction of the PCDS model (Condon et al., Proc. 25th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, p.304-15, 1993,). We show that L has an RPCDS in which the verifier flips O(log n) coins and reads O(1) bits of the debate if and only if L is in PSPACE. Using this new characterization of PSPACE, we show that certain stochastic PSPACE-hard functions are as hard to approximate closely as they are to compute exactly. Examples include optimization versions of dynamic graph reliability, stochastic satisfiability, Mah-Jongg, stochastic coloring, stochastic generalized geography, and other "games against nature". >

Abstract: A probabilistically checkable debate system (PCDS) for a language L consists of a probabilistic polynomial-time verifier V and a debate between Player 1, who claims that the input x is in L, and Player 0, who claims that the input x is not in L. It is known that there is a PCDS for L in which V flips O(log n) coins and reads O(1) bits of the debate if and only if L is in PSPACE [A. Condon, J. Feigenbaum, C. Lund, and P. Shor, Chicago J. Theoret. Comput. Sci., 1995, No. 4]. In this paper, we restrict attention to RPCDSs, which are PCDSs in which Player 0 follows a very simple strategy: On each turn, Player 0 chooses uniformly at random from the set of legal moves. We prove the following result. Theorem. L has an RPCDS in which the verifier flips O(log n) coins and reads O(1) bits of the debate if and only if L is in PSPACE. This new characterization of PSPACE is used to show that certain stochastic PSPACE-hard functions are as hard to approximate closely as they are to compute exactly. Examples of such functions include optimization versions of Dynamic Graph Reliability, Stochastic Satisfiability, Mah-Jongg, Stochastic Generalized Geography, and other "games against nature" of the type introduced in [C. Papadimitriou, J. Comput. System Sci., 31 (1985), pp. 288--301].

Abstract: In this paper, we study three connection games among the most widely played: Havannah, Twixt, and Slither. We show that determining the outcome of an arbitrary input position is PSPACE-complete in all three cases. Our reductions are based on the popular graph problem Generalized Geography and on Hex itself. We also consider the complexity of generalizations of Hex parameterized by the length of the solution and establish that while Short Generalized Hex is W[1]-hard, Short Hex is FPT. Finally, we prove that the ultra-weak solution to the empty starting position in hex cannot be fully adapted to any of these three games.