Wargaming with Quadratic Forms and Brauer Configuration Algebras

Abstract

Recently, Postnikov introduced Bert Kostant’s game to build the maximal positive root associated with the quadratic form of a simple graph. This result, and some other games based on Cartan matrices, give a new version of Gabriel’s theorem regarding algebras classification. In this paper, as a variation of Bert Kostant’s game, we introduce a wargame based on a missile defense system (MDS). In this case, missile trajectories are interpreted as suitable paths of a quiver (directed graph). The MDS protects a region of the Euclidean plane by firing missiles from a ground-based interceptor (GBI) located at the point (0,0). In this case, a missile success interception occurs if a suitable positive number associated with the launches of the enemy army can be written as a mixed sum of triangular and square numbers.

Keywords

• Brauer configuration algebra
• Dynkin graph
• mixed sums of triangular and square numbers
• path algebra
• positive root
• quadratic form