The Theory of Search Games and Rendezvous

Search Theory is one of the classic methodological disciplines in Operations Research and Applied Mathematics. It deals with the problem faced by a searcher who wishes to minimize the time required to find a hidden object. Traditionally, the target of the search is assigned to have no motives of its own and is either stationary (e.g., oil, network problems, etc.) or its motion is determined stochastically by known rules (e.g., financial markets, scheduling, genetics, etc.). The Theory of Search Games and Rendezvous widens the dimensions to the classical problem with the addition of an independent player of equal status to the searcher, who cares about being found or not being found. These multiple motives of searcher and hider are analytically and mathematically considered in the book's two foci: Search Games (Book I) and Rendezvous Theory (Book II).
Shmuel Gal's work on Search Games (Gal, 1980) stimulated considerable research in a variety of fields including Computer Science, Engineering, Biology, and Economics. Steve Alpern's original formulation of the rendezvous search problem in 1976 and his formalization of the continuous version (Alpern, 1995) have led to much research in rendezvous theory in the past few years. New material is covered in both Search Games (Book I) and Rendezvous Theory (Book II). The book examines a whole variety of new configurations of theory and problems that arise from these two aspects of the analysis - resulting in a penetrating state-of-the-art treatment of this highly useful mathematical, analytical tool.