"Minesweeper" and spectrum of discrete Laplacians

Abstract: The paper is devoted to a problem inspired by the "Minesweeper" computer game. It is shown that certain configurations of open cells guarantee the existence and the uniqueness of solution. Mathematically the problem is reduced to some spectral properties of discrete differential operators. It is shown how the uniqueness can be used to create a new game which preserves the spirit of "Minesweeper" but does not require a computer.