10.13023/ETD.2021.117
Penn, Nelson
Nelson
Penn
University of Kentucky
Computational Utilities for the Game of Simplicial Nim
University of Kentucky Libraries
2021
Master’s thesis
FOS: Engineering and technology
Simplicial nim games, a class of impartial games, have very interesting mathematical properties. Winning strategies on a simplicial nim game can be determined by the set of positions in the game whose Sprague-Grundy values are zero (also zero positions). In this work, I provide two major contributions to the study of simplicial nim games. First, I provide a modern and efficient implementation of the Sprague-Grundy function for an arbitrary simplicial complex, and discuss its performance and scope of viability. Secondly, I provide a method to find a simple mathematical expression to model that function if it exists. I show the effectiveness of this method on determining mathematical expressions that classify the set of zero positions on
several simplicial nim games.
© Nelson Penn