Paper by Erik D. Demaine

Reference:
Sarah Cannon, Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Sarah Eisenstat, Matthew J. Patitz, Robert Schweller, Scott M. Summers, and Andrew Winslow, “Two Hands Are Better Than One (up to constant factors): Self-Assembly In The 2HAM vs. aTAM”, in Proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2013), Kiel, Germany, February 27–March 2, 2013, pages 172–184.
BibTeX
@InProceedings{2HAM_STACS2013,
  AUTHOR        = {Sarah Cannon and Erik D. Demaine and Martin L. Demaine and Sarah Eisenstat and Matthew J. Patitz and Robert Schweller and Scott M. Summers and Andrew Winslow},
  TITLE         = {Two Hands Are Better Than One (up to constant factors): Self-Assembly In The 2HAM {vs.} aTAM},
  BOOKTITLE     = {Proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2013)},
  bookurl       = {http://www.stacs2013.uni-kiel.de},
  ADDRESS       = {Kiel, Germany},
  MONTH         = {February 27--March 2},
  YEAR          = 2013,
  PAGES         = {172--184},

  withstudent   = 1,
  papers        = {2HAM_TCS},
  doi           = {https://dx.doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2013.172},
  dblp          = {https://dblp.org/rec/conf/stacs/CannonDDEPSSW13},
  comments      = {The full paper is available as
                   <A HREF="http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.1650">
                   arXiv.org:1201.1650</A> of the
                   <A HREF="http://arXiv.org/archive/cs/intro.html">
                   Computing Research Repository (CoRR)</A>, and from <A HREF="https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2013.172">LIPIcs</A>.},
  copyright     = {Copyright held by the authors.  Licensed under the
                   <A HREF="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0</A> license.},
}

Abstract:
We study the difference between the standard seeded model (aTAM) of tile self-assembly, and the “seedless” two-handed model of tile self-assembly (2HAM). Most of our results suggest that the two-handed model is more powerful. In particular, we show how to simulate any seeded system with a two-handed system that is essentially just a constant factor larger. We exhibit finite shapes with a busy-beaver separation in the number of distinct tiles required by seeded versus two-handed, and exhibit an infinite shape that can be constructed two-handed but not seeded. Finally, we show that verifying whether a given system uniquely assembles a desired supertile is co-NP-complete in the two-handed model, while it was known to be polynomially solvable in the seeded model.

Comments:
The full paper is available as arXiv.org:1201.1650 of the Computing Research Repository (CoRR), and from LIPIcs.

Copyright:
Copyright held by the authors. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 license.

Availability:
The paper is available in PDF (752k).
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Related papers:
2HAM_TCS (On the effects of hierarchical self-assembly for reducing program-size complexity)


See also other papers by Erik Demaine.
These pages are generated automagically from a BibTeX file.
Last updated January 22, 2026 by Erik Demaine.