Three-player perfect information games are usually undetermined

Recently, I gave the talk Undeterminacy and choice (Indeterminación y elección), at the XVII Colombian Mathematical Congress, in Cali. Slides can be found at my talks page.

The talk addressed the results of my recent paper on with Richard Ketchersid, mentioned in my previous entry, and some extensions, about which I expect to be posting soon. Afterwards, somebody asked me how much of the theory of determinacy can be extended to three-player (or more) perfect information games. Not much.

The following easy example was suggested by Richard Ketchersid: There is an undetermined one-move game where players I, II, III play 0 or 1, with I playing first, then II, and finally III. To see this, say that and are the numbers played, and that:

• Player I wins iff
• Player II wins iff and
• Player III wins if

(One may think of this game as a perfect information version of paper-rock-scissors.) I imagine this observation is ancient, and would be grateful for a reference.

BOISE EXTRAVAGANZA IN SET THEORY (BEST) -Announcement 3 and Call for papers

Announcement 3: Call for papers, Lodging Deadlines.

The 18-th annual meeting of BEST will be hosted at Boise State University during the weekend of March 27 (Friday) – March 29 (Sunday), 2009. It is organized by Liljana Babinkostova, Andres Caicedo, Stefan Geschke, Richard Ketchersid, and Marion Scheepers. Contributed and invited talks will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Department of Mathematics, Boise State University. The four invited speakers are:

Steve Jackson (University of North Texas)

Ljubisa Kocinac (University of Nis, Republic of Serbia)

Assaf Rinot (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

Grigor Sargsyan (University of California, Berkeley)

Please consult the conference webpage at URL

http://math.boisestate.edu/~best/best18

There are three remaining important deadlines regarding the conference. CRITICAL DEADLINE: LODGING: The Hampton Inn & Suites is providing rooms at a reduced rate for BEST participants. To take advantage of the reduced rate, reservations must be made online by MARCH 12. Please follow this link to the Hampton Inn’s online reservation site for BEST. Anyone interested in participating should contact the organizers as soon as possible by sending an email to

best@math.boisestate.edu

DEADLINE 2: Abstracts: Atlas Conferences, Inc. is providing abstract services for BEST 18. The deadline for submitting an abstract for invited or contributed talk is MARCH 25. Links are available at the BEST 18 web site. DEADLINE 3: Call for papers: The organizers will be editors for a volume in the Contemporary Mathematics series. Research papers on topics related to Set Theory and its Applications will be considered for publication in this volume. All papers will go through a thorough referee process. Former and current participants of the BEST conferences or their collaborators are especially encouraged to consider submitting a research paper. Anyone interested in submitting a paper should contact Marion Scheepers as soon as possible at

marion@math.boisestate.edu

with this information. Subsequently information regarding preparation of papers will be sent to contributing authors by Contemporary Mathematics. The deadline for submitting a paper is JULY 21. On Saturday, March 28, Billy and Kris Hudson will host a social gathering at their home. All participants are cordially invited to ths social event. Kindly inform Billy at e-mail address

billyhudson@boisestate.edu

of plans to attend. More information is available at the conference web site. The conference is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Abstract services are provided by Atlas Conferences, Inc. Contemporary Mathematics is published by the American Mathematical Society. Reduced lodging rate is provided by The Hampton Inn & Suites. Support from these entities is gratefully acknowledged.

Steel VIG (January 30-February 1, 2009)

 

John Steel was one of my advisors at UC Berkeley. The fifteenth Very Informal Gathering of Logicians at UCLA (VIG) was in honor of John Steel on his 60th birthday. 

The meeting was excellent, with some very interesting talks and nice shared memories. Plus, Benjamin Miller worked miracles and secured the photo above without John finding out.

BOISE EXTRAVAGANZA IN SET THEORY – Announcement 2, Call for papers

The 18-th annual meeting of BEST will be hosted at Boise State University during the weekend of March 27 (Friday) – March 29 (Sunday), 2009.

It is organized by Liljana Babinkostova, Andres Caicedo, Stefan Geschke, Richard Ketchersid and Marion Scheepers.

Contributed and invited talks will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Department of Mathematics, Boise State University. The four invited speakers are:

Steve Jackson (University of North Texas)

Ljubisa Kocinac (University of Nis, Republic of Serbia)

Assaf Rinot (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

Grigor Sargsyan (University of California, Berkeley)

The conference webpage is available at URL

http://math.boisestate.edu/~best/best18

There are four important deadlines regarding the conference:

Lodging: The Hampton Inn & Suites is providing rooms at a reduced rate for BEST participants. To take advantage of the reduced rate, reservations must be made online by MARCH 12. Follow this link for the Hampton Inn’s online reservation site for BEST.

Financial support: Limited financial support is available to partially offset travel expenses of some participants. The criteria for granting support include whether the participant has alternative financial support for the conference, and whether the participant is presenting a talk at the conference. Preference is given to graduate students and early career researchers. The amount of support is contingent on the budget constraints. University accounting regulations require completing certain forms online BEFORE the conference, and submitting original receipts of expenses. Reimbursements will be sent after the conference. The deadline for applying for financial support is MARCH 3.

To apply for support, email the organizers at

best@diamond.boisestate.edu

Applications from graduate students must be supported by a separate email from their thesis advisor. Anyone interested in participating should contact the organizers as soon as possible by sending an email to

best@math.boisestate.edu

Abstracts: Atlas Conferences, Inc. is providing abstract services for BEST 18. The deadline for submitting an abstract for invited or contributed talk is MARCH 25. Links are available at the BEST 18 web site.

Call for papers: The organizers will be editors for a volume in the Contemporary Mathematics series. Research papers on topics related to Set Theory and its Applications will be considered for publication in this volume.

All papers will go through a thorough referee process. Former and current participants of the BEST conferences or their collaborators are especially encouraged to consider submitting a research paper. Anyone interested in submitting a paper should contact Marion Scheepers as soon as possible at 

marion@math.boisestate.edu 

with this information. Subsequently information regarding preparation of papers will be sent to contributing authors by Contemporary Mathematics. The deadline for submitting a paper is JULY 21.

The conference is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Abstract services are provided by Atlas Conferences, Inc. Contemporary Mathematics is published by the American Mathematical Society. Reduced lodging rate is provided by The Hampton Inn & Suites. Support from these entities is gratefully acknowledged.

BOISE EXTRAVAGANZA IN SET THEORY – Announcement 1

 Friday, March 27 – Sunday, March 29, 2009

Organized by Liljana Babinkostova, Andres Caicedo, Stefan Geschke, Richard Ketchersid, and Marion Scheepers.

We are pleased to announce our eighteenth annual BEST conference.

There will be four talks by invited speakers:

Steve Jackson (University of North Texas)

Ljubisa Kocinac (University of Nis, Republic of Serbia)

Assaf Rinot (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

Grigor Sargsyan (University of California, Berkeley)

The talks will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Department of Mathematics, Boise State University.

The conference webpage is available at URL

http://math.boisestate.edu/~best/best18

This page will be updated with information regarding lodging, abstract submission, weather, maps, schedule, etc. 

Limited financial support is available to partially offset travel expenses of some participants. The criteria for granting support include whether the participant has alternative financial support for the conference, and whether the participant is presenting a talk at the conference. Preference is given to graduate students and early career researchers. The amount of support is contingent on the budget constraints. University accounting regulations require completing certain forms appropriately and submitting original receipts of expenses before issuing checks.  

To apply for support, email the organizers at

best@math.boisestate.edu 

Applications from graduate students must be supported by a separate email from their thesis advisor. 

Anyone interested in participating should contact the organizers as soon as possible by sending an email to

best@math.boisestate.edu

The organizers will be editors for a volume in the Contemporary Mathematics series. Research papers on topics related to Set Theory and its Applications will be considered for publication in this volume. All papers will go through a thorough referee process. Former and current participants of the BEST conferences or their collaborators are especially encouraged to consider submitting a research paper. Anyone interested in submitting a paper should contact Marion Scheepers as soon as possible at marion@math.boisestate.edu with this information. More information will be posted at the conference web site.

The conference is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Abstract services are provided by Atlas Conferences, Inc. Contemporary Mathematics is published by the American Mathematical Society. Support from these three organizations is gratefully acknowledged.