Restrictions of $m$-Wythoff Nim and $p$-complementary Beatty Sequences

Abstract

Fix a positive integer $m$. The game of \emph{$m$-Wythoff Nim} (A.S. Fraenkel, 1982) is a well-known extension of \emph{Wythoff Nim}, a.k.a 'Corner the Queen'. Its set of $P$-positions may be represented by a pair of increasing sequences of non-negative integers. It is well-known that these sequences are so-called \emph{complementary homogeneous} \emph{Beatty sequences}, that is they satisfy Beatty's theorem. For a positive integer $p$, we generalize the solution of $m$-Wythoff Nim to a pair of \emph{$p$-complementary}---each positive integer occurs exactly $p$ times---homogeneous Beatty sequences $a = (a_n)_{n\in \M}$ and $b = (b_n)_{n\in \M}$, which, for all $n$, satisfies $b_n-a_n=mn$. By the latter property, we show that $a$ and $b$ are unique among \emph{all} pairs of non-decreasing $p$-complementary sequences. We prove that such pairs can be partitioned into $p$ pairs of complementary Beatty sequences. Our main results are that $\{\{a_n,b_n\}\mid n\in \M\}$ represents the solution to three new '$p$-restrictions' of $m$-Wythoff Nim---of which one has a \emph{blocking maneuver} on the \emph{rook-type} options. C. Kimberling has shown that the solution of Wythoff Nim satisfies the \emph{complementary equation} $x_{x_n}=y_n-1$. We generalize this formula to a certain '$p$-complementary equation' satisfied by our pair $a$ and $b$. We also show that one may obtain our new pair of sequences by three so-called \emph{Minimal EXclusive} algorithms. We conclude with an Appendix by Aviezri Fraenkel.

22 pages, 2 figures, Games of No Chance 4, Appendix by Aviezri Fraenkel