Mathematical Analyses Of Decisions Voting And Games

This volume contains the proceedings of the virtual AMS Special Session on Mathematics of Decisions, Elections and Games, held on April 8, 2022. Decision theory, voting theory, and game theory are three related areas of mathematics that involve making optimal decisions in different contexts. While these three areas are distinct, much of the recent research in these fields borrows techniques from other branches of mathematics such as algebra, combinatorics, convex geometry, logic, representation theory, etc. The papers in this volume demonstrate how the mathematics of decisions, elections, and games can be used to analyze problems from the social sciences.

Voters today often desert a preferred candidate for a more viable second choice to avoid wasting their vote. Likewise, parties to a dispute often find themselves unable to agree on a fair division of contested goods. In Mathematics and Democracy, Steven Brams, a leading authority in the use of mathematics to design decision-making processes, shows how social-choice and game theory could make political and social institutions more democratic. Using mathematical analysis, he develops rigorous new procedures that enable voters to better express themselves and that allow disputants to divide goods more fairly. One of the procedures that Brams proposes is "approval voting," which allows voters to vote for as many candidates as they like or consider acceptable. There is no ranking, and the candidate with the most votes wins. The voter no longer has to consider whether a vote for a preferred but less popular candidate might be wasted. In the same vein, Brams puts forward new, more equitable procedures for resolving disputes over divisible and indivisible goods.

"The best book available for non-mathematicians." — Contemporary Psychology. Superb nontechnical introduction to game theory and related disciplines, primarily as applied to the social sciences. Clear, comprehensive coverage of utility theory, 2-person zero-sum games, 2-person non-zero-sum games, n-person games, individual and group decision-making, much more. Appendixes. Bibliography. Graphs and figures.

This volume contains the proceedings of two AMS Special Sessions on The Mathematics of Decisions, Elections, and Games, held January 4, 2012, in Boston, MA, and January 11-12, 2013, in San Diego, CA. Decision theory, voting theory, and game theory are three intertwined areas of mathematics that involve making optimal decisions under different contexts. Although these areas include their own mathematical results, much of the recent research in these areas involves developing and applying new perspectives from their intersection with other branches of mathematics, such as algebra, representation theory, combinatorics, convex geometry, dynamical systems, etc. The papers in this volume highlight and exploit the mathematical structure of decisions, elections, and games to model and to analyze problems from the social sciences.

This volume contains the proceedings of the virtual AMS Special Session on Fractal Geometry and Dynamical Systems, held from May 14–15, 2022. The content covers a wide range of topics. It includes nonautonomous dynamics of complex polynomials, theory and applications of polymorphisms, topological and geometric problems related to dynamical systems, and also covers fractal dimensions, including the Hausdorff dimension of fractal interpolation functions. Furthermore, the book contains a discussion of self-similar measures as well as the theory of IFS measures associated with Bratteli diagrams. This book is suitable for graduate students interested in fractal theory, researchers interested in fractal geometry and dynamical systems, and anyone interested in the application of fractals in science and engineering. This book also offers a valuable resource for researchers working on applications of fractals in different fields.

This book is a theoretical and completely rigorous analysis of voting in committees that provides mathematical proof of the existence of democratic voting systems, which are immune to the manipulation of preferences of coalitions of voters. The author begins by determining the power distribution among voters that is induced by a voting rule, giving particular consideration to choice by plurality voting and Borda's rule. He then constructs, for all possible committees, well-behaved representative voting procedures which are not distorted by strategic voting, giving complete solutions for certain important classes of committees. The solution to the problem of mass elections is fully characterised.

This volume contains papers presented at the 6th International Conference on ModelingDecisionsforArti?cialIntelligence(MDAI2009),heldinAwajiIsland, Japan, November 30 – December 2, 2009. This conference followed MDAI 2004 (Barcelona, Catalonia), MDAI 2005 (Tsukuba, Japan), MDAI 2006 (Tarragona, Catalonia), MDAI 2007 (Kitakyushu, Japan), and MDAI 2008 (Sabadell, C- alonia) with proceedings also published in the LNAI series (Vols. 3131, 3558, 3885, 4617, and 5285). The aim of this conference was to provide a forum for researchers to d- cuss the theory and tools for modeling decisions, as well as applications that encompass decision-making processes and information-fusion techniques. The organizers received 61 papers from 15 di?erent countries, from Asia, Europe,andAmerica,28ofwhicharepublishedinthis volume.Eachsubmission received at least two reviews from the Program Committee and a few external reviewers. We would like to express our gratitude to them for their work. The plenary talks presented at the conference are also included in this volume. The conference was supported by the Commemorative Organization for The JapanWorldExposition'70,the TsutomuNakauchiFoundation,HyogoInter- tional Association, the Institute of Systems, Control and Information Engineers (ISCIE),the OperationsResearchSocietyofJapan(ORSJ),the UNESCO Chair in Data Privacy, the Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics (SOFT), the Catalan Association for Arti?cial Intelligence (ACIA), the Eu- pean Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT), and the Spanish MEC (ARES - CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010 CSD2007-00004).