Proper colouring Painter–Builder game

  • Małgorzata Bednarska-Bzdęga
  • , Michael Krivelevich
  • , Viola Mészáros
  • , Clément Requilé*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We consider the following two-player game, parametrised by positive integers n and k. The game is played between Painter and Builder, alternately taking turns, with Painter moving first. The game starts with the empty graph on n vertices. In each round Painter colours a vertex of her choice by one of the k colours and Builder adds an edge between two previously unconnected vertices. Both players must adhere to the restriction that the game graph is properly k-coloured. The game ends if either all n vertices have been coloured, or Painter has no legal move. In the former case, Painter wins the game; in the latter one, Builder is the winner. We prove that the minimal number of colours k=k(n) allowing Painter's win is of logarithmic order in the number of vertices n. Biased versions of the game are also considered.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)658-664
Number of pages7
JournalDiscrete Mathematics
Volume341
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2018

Funding

FundersFunder number
Institut für Mathematik und Informatik
FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG
Berlin Mathematical School
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation
European Commission
Freie Universität Berlin
Austrian Science FundF5004
Israel Science Foundation1261/17
Seventh Framework Programme630749
USA-Israel BSF2014361
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung200020-162884, 200020-144531

    Keywords

    • Combinatorial games
    • Graph colouring

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