Operations research applications of dichotomous search

An object is searched for in {1,⋯,N}. Queries for the object are sequentially conducted. A query at x reveals whether the object’s location is greater than x. The objective is to find the object within a minimal expected number of queries. This problem is called the “dichotomous search” problem and has many versions. This paper surveys dichotomous search problems with the emphasis on Operations Research applications.

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