Sprague-Grundy Function of Symmetric Hypergraphs

Abstract

We consider a generalization of the classical game of $NIM$ called hypergraph $NIM$. Given a hypergraph $\cH$ on the ground set $V = \{1, \ldots, n\}$ of $n$ piles of stones, two players alternate in choosing a hyperedge $H \in \cH$ and strictly decreasing all piles $i\in H$. The player who makes the last move is the winner. Recently it was shown that for many classes of hypergraphs the Sprague-Grundy function of the corresponding game is given by the formula introduced originally by Jenkyns and Mayberry (1980). In this paper we characterize symmetric hypergraphs for which the Sprague-Grundy function is described by the same formula.