Ordinal Sums of Numbers

Abstract

In this paper we consider ordinal sums of combinatorial games where each summand is a number, not necessarily in canonical form. In doing so we give formulas for the value of an ordinal sum of numbers where the literal form of the base has certain properties. These formulas include a closed form of the value of any ordinal sum of numbers where the base is in canonical form. Our work employs a recent result of Clow which gives a criteria for an ordinal sum G : K = H : K when G and H do not have the same literal form, as well as expanding this theory with the introduction of new notation, a novel ruleset, Teetering Towers, and a novel construction of the canonical forms of numbers in Teetering Towers. In doing so, we resolve the problem of determining the value of an ordinal sum of numbers in all but a few cases appearing in Conway's On Numbers and Games; thus generalizing a number of existing results and techniques including Berlekamp' sign rule, van Roode's signed binary number method, and recent work by Carvalho, Huggan, Nowakowski, and Pereira dos Santos. We conclude with a list of open problems related to our results.