Steve Alpern – författare

Search Theory is one of the original disciplines within the field of Operations Research. It deals with the problem faced by a Searcher who wishes to minimize the time required to find a hidden object, or “target. ” The Searcher chooses a path in the “search space” and finds the target when he is sufficiently close to it. Traditionally, the target is assumed to have no motives of its own regarding when it is found; it is simply stationary and hidden according to a known distribution (e. g. , oil), or its motion is determined stochastically by known rules (e. g. , a fox in a forest). The problems dealt with in this book assume, on the contrary, that the “target” is an independent player of equal status to the Searcher, who cares about when he is found. We consider two possible motives of the target, and divide the book accordingly. Book I considers the zero-sum game that results when the target (here called the Hider) does not want to be found. Such problems have been called Search Games (with the “ze- sum” qualifier understood). Book II considers the opposite motive of the target, namely, that he wants to be found. In this case the Searcher and the Hider can be thought of as a team of agents (simply called Player I and Player II) with identical aims, and the coordination problem they jointly face is called the Rendezvous Search Problem.

This 2000 book provides a self-contained introduction to typical properties of homeomorphisms. Examples of properties of homeomorphisms considered include transitivity, chaos and ergodicity. A key idea here is the interrelation between typical properties of volume preserving homeomorphisms and typical properties of volume preserving bijections of the underlying measure space. The authors make the first part of this book very concrete by considering volume preserving homeomorphisms of the unit n-dimensional cube, and they go on to prove fixed point theorems (Conley-Zehnder- Franks). This is done in a number of short self-contained chapters which would be suitable for an undergraduate analysis seminar or a graduate lecture course. Much of this work describes the work of the two authors, over the last twenty years, in extending to different settings and properties, the celebrated result of Oxtoby and Ulam that for volume homeomorphisms of the unit cube, ergodicity is a typical property.

This 2000 book provides a self-contained introduction to typical properties of homeomorphisms. Examples of properties of homeomorphisms considered include transitivity, chaos and ergodicity. A key idea here is the interrelation between typical properties of volume preserving homeomorphisms and typical properties of volume preserving bijections of the underlying measure space. The authors make the first part of this book very concrete by considering volume preserving homeomorphisms of the unit n-dimensional cube, and they go on to prove fixed point theorems (Conley-Zehnder- Franks). This is done in a number of short self-contained chapters which would be suitable for an undergraduate analysis seminar or a graduate lecture course. Much of this work describes the work of the two authors, over the last twenty years, in extending to different settings and properties, the celebrated result of Oxtoby and Ulam that for volume homeomorphisms of the unit cube, ergodicity is a typical property.

Search Theory is one of the original disciplines within the field of Operations Research. It deals with the problem faced by a Searcher who wishes to minimize the time required to find a hidden object, or “target. ” The Searcher chooses a path in the “search space” and finds the target when he is sufficiently close to it. Traditionally, the target is assumed to have no motives of its own regarding when it is found; it is simply stationary and hidden according to a known distribution (e. g. , oil), or its motion is determined stochastically by known rules (e. g. , a fox in a forest). The problems dealt with in this book assume, on the contrary, that the “target” is an independent player of equal status to the Searcher, who cares about when he is found. We consider two possible motives of the target, and divide the book accordingly. Book I considers the zero-sum game that results when the target (here called the Hider) does not want to be found. Such problems have been called Search Games (with the “ze- sum” qualifier understood). Book II considers the opposite motive of the target, namely, that he wants to be found. In this case the Searcher and the Hider can be thought of as a team of agents (simply called Player I and Player II) with identical aims, and the coordination problem they jointly face is called the Rendezvous Search Problem.

Search Theory is one of the original disciplines within the field of Operations Research. It deals with the problem faced by a Searcher who wishes to minimize the time required to find a hidden object, or “target. ” The Searcher chooses a path in the “search space” and finds the target when he is sufficiently close to it. Traditionally, the target is assumed to have no motives of its own regarding when it is found; it is simply stationary and hidden according to a known distribution (e. g. , oil), or its motion is determined stochastically by known rules (e. g. , a fox in a forest). The problems dealt with in this book assume, on the contrary, that the “target” is an independent player of equal status to the Searcher, who cares about when he is found. We consider two possible motives of the target, and divide the book accordingly. Book I considers the zero-sum game that results when the target (here called the Hider) does not want to be found. Such problems have been called Search Games (with the “ze- sum” qualifier understood). Book II considers the opposite motive of the target, namely, that he wants to be found. In this case the Searcher and the Hider can be thought of as a team of agents (simply called Player I and Player II) with identical aims, and the coordination problem they jointly face is called the Rendezvous Search Problem.

Search games and rendezvous problems have received growing attention in computer science within the past few years.  Rendezvous problems emerge naturally, for instance, to optimize performance and convergence of mobile robots. This gives a new algorithmic point of view to the theory. Furthermore, modern topics such as the spreading of gossip or disease in social networks have lead to new challenging problems in search and rendezvous. Search Theory: A Game Theoretic Perspective introduces the first integrated approach to Search and Rendezvous from the perspectives of  biologists, computer scientists and mathematicians. This contributed volume covers a wide range of topics including rendezvous problems and solutions, rendezvous on graphs, search games on biology, mobility in governed social networks, search and security, and more.  Most chapters also include case studies or a  survey, in addition to a chapter on the future direction of Search and Rendezvous research. This book targets researchers and practitioners working in computer science, mathematics and biology as a reference book.  Advanced level students focused on these fields will also find this book valuable as a secondary text book or reference.