Cooperation in Combinatorial Search

Abstract

In the game theoretical approach of the basic problem in Combinatorial Search an adversary thinks of a defective element $d$ of an $n$-element pool $X$, and the questioner needs to find $x$ by asking questions of type is $d\in Q$? for certain subsets $Q$ of $X$. We study cooperative versions of this problem, where there are multiple questioners, but not all of them learn the answer to the queries. We consider various models that differ in how it is decided who gets to ask the next query, who obtains the answer to the query, and who needs to know the defective element by the end of the process.