# On the Cyclic Assumption of the Cow-Path Search Algorithm

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10253 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.10253/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026).
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- First posted on arXiv 7 Oct 2026.

## Abstract (arXiv)

In the cow-path problem, a cow must find a goal lying at an unknown distance on one of w paths connected only at the origin, and performance is measured by competitive ratio. Kao, Reif and Tate designed an efficient randomized algorithm in which the cow visits the paths in a fixed cyclic order. They proved the algorithm is optimal for w=2, and subsequently Kao, Ma, Sipser and Yin proved its optimality for all w, with a claim that no algorithm does better than the best cyclic one. This note provides a detailed proof of that claim.