Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Lemma 3. There exists an optimal pure strategy in which all searchers use a
doubleton.
Proof. Any searcher, S j , picks a color uniformly randomly from his own
Ω j ,i.e.
1
| Ω j |
with probability
j uniformly
randomly and then equiprobably choose one of the two colors from that doubleton.
This means that every pure strategy of S j is equivalent to a mixed strategy on (some)
doubletons. Now we prove that it is optimal for each searcher to choose one double-
ton. Since the game is finite, there exists an optimal mixed strategy for the searchers
which can be described by a probability distribution on doubletons (pure strategies).
Fix some searcher, say S 1 , and suppose that he chooses a collection of doubletons,
D 1 ,
. It is equivalent to first pick a doubleton from
Ω
p k that add up to 1. Let, P , denote the
winning probability of the searchers. Then P
D 2 ,...,
D k with probabilities p 1 ,
p 2 ,...,
p i P i ,where P i denotes the prob-
ability that the searchers win, given that S 1 chooses D i and the other searchers do
not change their strategy. Choose an i 0 for which P i 0 =
=
p i P i .
This means that there is a doubleton such that if it is chosen by S 1 , the expected
payoff does not decrease, provided that the rest of the searchers do not change their
strategy.
max i P i .Then P i 0
Theorem 1. If 2 m
=
ad
+
b, for integers a and 0
<
b
<
d, then the value of the game
b
2 a + 1 d .
Proof. Clearly, it is optimal for the searchers to use coins that contain every color
at least once. Let Z be the set of colors chosen by the searchers after flipping
their coins, let X d , m = |
2 d
equals
.Thatis, X d , m is the number of different colors after
a toss. The value of the game is equal to the expected proportion of the com-
plement of Z ,
Z
|
E [ | Z c
E [ X d , m d . Fix some strategy, s , of the searchers, let G s
be the set of colors corresponding to this strategy and let C i be the event that
color i is chosen by the searchers after they toss their coins. Note that
| ]
=
1
d
|
G s | =
d .
1
c ( i )
Then E
is the number of
times that color i appears on a coin. The searchers seek to minimize the sum
[
X d , m ]= i G s P
[
C i ]= i G s (
1
(
2 )
)
,where c
(
i
)
G s 2 c ( i ) under the constraint
i c
(
i
)=
2 m . Note that whenever l
j
2then
i
2 l
+ 2 j + 1 . Iteration of this inequality shows that the mini-
mum is achieved by choosing G s such that all c
+ 2 j
2 l 1
(
i
) ,
i
G s , are as equal as possi-
ble, i.e. b of them equal to a
+
1 and the remaining d
b equal to a .Thenweget
G s 2 c ( i )
b
2 a + 1
d
b
2 d
b
2 a + 1 .
=
+
=
i
2 a
4.3 Maximizing the Median
Picking an element from a doubleton is just flipping a coin and so the searchers
are using d colors to create m coins that do not use the same color on both sides.
Note that for each array of coins used by the searchers, one can draw a graph
whose vertices correspond to the colors and whose edges correspond to the coins.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search